


4 Quadrents; 1 person

by Writing_will_be_my_death



Series: Head Up, Eyes Forward [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Abusive Bro, Fluff, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Meteorstuck, Panic Attack, Past Child Abuse, Quadrant Confusion, Self-Harm, happy end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-07
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2019-01-30 19:36:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 24,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12660027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writing_will_be_my_death/pseuds/Writing_will_be_my_death
Summary: In which Dave Is Not Gay, and Karkat Is Only Pale for him.That’s a lie Dave is definitely gay (bisexual actually) and Karkat is so done with sorting his feelings into quadrants





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Heyyyyyyyy I really like Davekat and was running out of things to read when I remembered that I Am A Writer
> 
> Sorry if they are OOC, I’ve never written any of these characters before
> 
> Also this hasn’t been proofread

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and you are currently talking with Kanaya in her respiteblock. It wasn’t often that you two spoke, seen as she was normally with Rose and you were normally with Dave, but this discussion was one you needed with another troll. Besides, she probably had the best grasp on your situation out of anyone.

“It just makes no fucking sense! Vacillation is one thing, but this? What the fuck is this?” You practically scream.

Kanaya puts her hand on your shoulder, “I’m not entirely sure, Karkat,” she tells you, “but you know your ancestor was in a relationship that surpassed the quadrants, perhaps you inherited these feelings?”

You let out a frustrated sigh. After meeting your dancestor, you really don’t want to be compared to your ancestor. 

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” you answer as you shrug off her hand from your shoulder, “he’s stated multiple times that he’s ‘not gay’, which the whole concept of confining your relationships to one gender sounds stupid, but, still!” You cover your face with your hands. “He won’t even consider entering a quadrant with me!”

Kanaya doesn’t answer, and you figure that means she too has realized this talk was pointless, since there is no way that Dave would enter a quadrant with you, with or without your strange blurred quadrant feelings for him.

Just as you are about to get up and leave, Kanaya begins to talk again.

“Perhaps that is not true.”

You stare at her in disbelief. “What?”

She looks at you with nervously, as though she expects you to throw a tantrum at any moment.

“A little while back, Rose and I were discussing the quadrants, wondering which one our relationship fell under, and I learnt something about humans and moirallegiance. Two things, actually, but only one concerns you right now,” she pauses, as though expecting you to answer. When you don’t, she continues, “I learnt that humans, despite what it seems, do not share their feelings with others openly and freely. Not all of them atleast. Usually they reserve these topics to a handful of others, one of whom would be called a ‘best friend’, and it is a platonic relationship to humans.”

You couldn’t believe it, there was a chance you could enter a quadrant with Dave, and moirallegiance was definitely a good one. You would still have to suppress your pitch and flush feelings for him, but at least you would be able to help him.

“Holy shit,” You say, but not out of anger, but excitement. “Holy fucking shit, yes!” You are practically screaming.

Kanaya lets out a soft chuckle before speaking again, “Rose did say something about human males not being as open about it as human females, but she did not say the reasons. I suggest you go speak to her before attending to become Dave’s ‘best friend’”

You nodded in response, too happy to give a proper answer, and ran off to your respiteblock to think about how you were going to ask Rose about how to become Dave’s “best friend”.

~~~~~

Your name DAVE STRIDER and you are not gay. Not one bit. Any feelings for any boys you had were strictly platonic, a cool dude like you would never think about what it would be like to kiss your best bro gently on his lips, and caress his cheeks. You would never stare at said best bros lips instead of watching the movie, and marvel at how soft they looked. You didn’t lie awake thinking about how perfect every aspect of him was, despite the fact that he couldn’t seem to see these things about himself. No, you never thought these things, because cool dudes like you aren’t gay. Your Bro had told you on many occasions that being gay was not cool, not one bit. And of course, you were the coolest dude around.

Your computer chimed, someone was pestering you on pesterchum. 

gallowsCalibrator [ GC ] began trolling turntechGodhead [ TG ]

GC: H3Y COOLK1D  
TG: hey terezi  
TG: whats up  
GC: VR1SK4 4ND 1 W3R3 P4SS1NG THROUGH C4N TOWN  
GC: 4ND TH3 MAYOR 1S *DY1NG* TO S33 YOU  
GC: H3 TOLD M3 TH4T C4NTOWN R3QUIR3S YOUR PR3S3NCE 4S SOON 4S SOON 4S POSS1BL3  
TG: does he now  
TG: what for  
GC: CONSTRUCT1ON OF 4 N3W D1STR1CT  
GC: H3 ALSO W4NT3D K4RK4T TOO  
GC: SO YOU SHOULD G3T H1M ON YOUR W4Y OVER  
TG: alright  
TG: cant wait to see the mayor  
TG: that guys the best  
TG: better than cold aj on a hot day after having an epic strife on the roof  
GC: 1 WOULD LOV3 TO ST4Y AND CH4T  
GC: BUT MY MO1R4L W4NTS M3  
GC: SM3LL YOU L4T3R COOLK1D  
TG: bye

gallowsCalibrator [ GC ] ceased trolling turntechGodhead [ TG ]

Standing up from your chair, you realize that Karkat said he was going to be with Kanaya today. Still, you couldn’t let down the mayor, so if the mayor wanted Karkat, then the mayor was gonna get Karkat.

You debated pestering Karkat or going to Kanaya's room, and decided to go to Kanaya's room. After all, that is where he said he’d be, and he was probably going to ignore anyone who pestered him during his visit.

~

You knocked on Kanaya’s door, and she answered immediately. 

“Hello, Dave. What are you doing here?” She asks you, smiling.

“Terezi told me the mayor wanted me and Karkat at cantown, so I’m here to get him.”

You couldn’t be certain, but it seemed as though her smile got bigger. “He left to his respiteblock a little while back, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind going to cantown with you.”

You nod in response. “A’ight. Thanks.” You say as you walk towards Karkat's room. 

~~~~~

carcinoGeneticist [ CG ] began trolling tentacleTherapist [ TT ]

CG: ROSE  
TT: Karkat.  
CG: I HAVE A QUESTION  
TT: And I have many answers.  
CG: I WANT TO BECOME DAVE’S “BEST FRIEND”  
CG: BUT KANAYA SAID THAT YOU SAID THAT HUMAN MALES WERE NOT THAT OPEN TO BEING “BEST FRIENDS”  
CG: WHY  
TT: Well, yes that is how they are.  
TT: A “best friend” is seen as a girl thing, and as you probably know by now, when a guy does something girly, it is seen as being gay.  
CG: AND DAVE ISNT GAY  
CG: BUT KANAYA SAID THAT BEING “BEST FRIENDS” WAS PLATONIC  
TT: It is.  
TT: And I think Dave would benefit from having a best friend. Especially if your intentions are…  
TT: Pale.  
CG: WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU ASSUME MY INTENTIONS WERE PALE  
TT: Because I remember speaking to Kanaya about moirallegiance being like having a best friend, and you are obsessed with quadrants.  
TT: It’s really quite obvious.  
CG: FUCK  
CG: OK FINE  
CG: YOU'RE RIGHT  
CG: NOW TELL ME HOW TO BECOME STRIDERS MOIRAIL

~~~~~

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and you are flipping your shit. You might actually be able to become Dave’s moirail.

Still, it would be hard to ignore the other feelings you had for Dave. The hate you felt when he decided to pick on you a little too much, and the way he looked just perfect asleep on your lap as you watched a romcom. Maybe being moirails with Dave would get you over these feelings.

Then again, it could make things worse. Being moirails would mean that you were always close, and you would have more moments to experience the other quadrants. 

A single, loud, knock on your door pulled you out of your thoughts. Who the fuck was knocking on your door? It seemed like Dave’s knock, but you had told Dave you were at Kanaya’s. 

When you open the door, you see that it is in fact Dave who has come to see you.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which cantown expands ever so slightly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooooooo boy I’m on a writing high over here. Dunno how many more chapters I’ll be able to pump out, but hey at least you’ve got two.
> 
> This isn’t proofread either btw

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and Dave is standing in your doorway. You are not at all ready to see him, having just been having a mini freak out over the fact that your flush and pitch feelings for him might not subside after you become his best fr- moirail. You mean moirail. And there is a very specific moment you are waiting for, that Rose told you about, to become his moirail, and that moment is not right now.

“The fuck do you want, Strider?” That came out harsher than you intended.

“Chill, Karkat,” he replies, raising his hands in a mocking defence, “apparently the mayor wants me and you to help build a new district. You wouldn’t turn down the mayor, would you?”

Oh good, you won’t have to deal with only having Dave in your mind. You could really use a break from your quadrant mixing feelings.

“Of course I would never turn down the mayor, you buldgesucker,” you start, this time with a more joking tone, “no one turns down the mayor,”

Dave smiles. Goddamn he has beautiful smile. “Alright, let’s go!” 

And the two of you head off to cantown.

~~~~~

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and you are in the process of building the brand new music district in cantown with your two best bros, Karkat and the mayor.

You’re not too sure why the mayor wanted Karkat to help build the music district. Karkat isn’t as enthusiastic about music as you are, and you know you’ve played some of your music here in cantown in the 7 or so months you’ve been on the meteor.

You’re pretty sure the mayor just likes having the two of you around.

The music district is rather small, it only has an auditorium, an outdoor auditorium, a music shop, a recording studio, and a few apartment buildings where people like you would live. 

You and the mayor are currently drawing out the different roads of the new district, and Karkat is building up the last apartment building, and you can’t help but notice the way his face looks when he’s concentrating. It looks like his usual scowl, but with a hit of confusion, like he’s not too sure what he’s actually doing. 

It’s quite cute.

Wait what.

Cool dudes like you do not find the faces of their best bros cute. That’s a gay thing, and cool dudes like you are not gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with being gay, hell your sister is gay, but cool dudes like you just aren’t.

You do not find Karkat cute in any way at all. Not one bit. Any thought like that has never entered your mind, not even as a mere consideration, much less in a prolonged longing for him to fall asleep in your arms so you could stare at his beautiful face, and maybe, just maybe, give him a quick kiss-

“What the fuck are you looking at?”

Oh fuck you were staring at his face weren’t you.

“Just making sure you don’t fuck up that apartment building.” You lie. It’s a good and believable lie, he can’t see exactly where you were looking due to your shades, and the banter that would follow is obvious and natural.

Only it doesn’t.

Karkat looks away from you, and continues to build the apartment building. You continue to draw the roads.

You continue to mindlessly draw roads, thinking about you had been caught staring at Karkat's face. Sure, he couldn’t see exactly where you were looking, but it was pretty obvious that you were staring at him. It had to be.

And now he wasn’t engaging in any of his usual rants. You have royally fucked up. 

Cool dudes like you don’t stare longingly at their best bros.

Pretty soon Karkat isn’t going to want to be bros with you. You’re certain of it.

As you draw more roads, more thoughts enter your mind.

If Bro knew these things were happening, he’d kick your ass in a strife, just like he had when you were in grade 4. 

Of course, you had deserved it. You had thought you had a crush on a boy in your class, and Bro was quick to teach you that Striders were cool dudes who weren’t gay. 

You draw more roads, not noticing a slightly concerned voice trying to talk to you.

You’re getting angry.

Cool dudes like you aren’t gay.

Striders aren’t gay.

You aren’t gay.

...

Someone pokes your side.

~~~~~

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and you’re trying your damn hardest not to give into pitch feelings and antagonize Dave. You both knew he was baiting you, and you’re sure even the mayor could feel the tension in the air when you didn’t throw a fit.

And while his reasoning for staring in your general direction was plausible, it didn’t sit right with you. There was no reason to disbelieve it, as you were prone to knocking down can buildings during their construction, but you felt like Dave had other intentions.

You quickly and easily finish up the stacked hive building, and turn your attention to Dave, who is drawing roads rather harshly. If you didn’t know Dave to be the most unfeeling creature to exist, you’d say he was angry.

Actually, scratch that, he is definitely angry. 

His lips are pressed in a hard line, and his eyebrows have dipped under his shades. He has drawn more than enough roads, and you’re pretty sure he’s going to break the chalk with all the force he’s using.

You look at the mayor, who shares your concern over Dave’s emotional state. You both look back at Dave.

“Dave?” You say.

No answer.

“Dave, are you okay?”

Still no answer.

You look back at the mayor, who is now approaching Dave.

The mayor stops beside Dave, and pokes his gently on the side.

Dave whips his head around to face the mayor, before promptly absconding the fuck out of there.

Both you and the mayor are left in shock of what happened, but you still manage to run after him.

He might not be your moirail yet, but damnit he needs comforting, and if anyone is going to give it to him, it’ll be you.

~

At this point you’re sprinting, and are pretty much completely out of breath. Dave must’ve flash stepped some of the distance.

Even though you can no longer see him, you’re pretty certain he went to his respiteblock.

When you finally arrive at the door to his respiteblock, you give it 9 hard knocks.

“DAVE!” You scream, “DAVE, OPEN UP!”

The door opens. Dave smirks at you.

“What’s up?” He did not just say that.

“What the ever loving fuck happened back there, you nooksniffer!? You stared in my general vicinity, antagonize me, get angry and draw 20 extra roads, then fucking run when the mayor tried to get your attention!!” Ah yes, blend the pitch with pale. That’s totally something normal.

He lets out a soft, yet nervous, chuckle, “You sound like a soccer mom after she’s just picked up her kid and his entire team of six year olds from practice, and just had her barista bring her her coffee a single degree too cold.”

“I have no idea what the fuck you just said, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t answer my question.” You pause, and decide to change your tone to a more sympathetic one. “What happened back there?”

He stares at you, and for a moment you think you’ve fucked up somehow.

Finally, he answers your question. Sort of. “S’okay dude. I’m just really tired. Goodnight.” And he shuts the door. 

You decided to give up on trying to make him speak for today, and instead head back to your respiteblock to try and get some sleep too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment!! They motivate me to write more


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Dave has a dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m slowly dying off from my writing high :( luckily I was able to make this!!
> 
> Still not proofread

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and you probably shouldn’t be going to sleep. Yes, you had told Karkat you were going to sleep, but with your first strife with Bro on your mind, chances were pretty high that that’s what your dream bubble would make. None the less, you really don’t like lying to Karkat for some strange reason, and decided to go to sleep anyway.

~

You wake quite suddenly, and recognize the room as yours from your apartment. It was decorated just like that day, when you were in grade 4.

Your body still looked like it did on the meteor, and you were wearing your god-tier outfit, but that didn’t change the fact that your Bro was still expecting you on the roof any second now.

The longer you waited, the worse the strife would be, so you hurried on up to the roof.

There on the roof, stood Bro. It was the only time you’d see him before the strife began, and you knew the exact words he was going to say before this one began.

“Striders aren’t gay.”

And then you two were locked in battle.

~~~~~

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and you are wandering aimlessly in a dream bubble. Well, almost aimlessly. You were trying to avoid contact with anyone, especially your alternate selves, but aside from that, you had no destination.

After a while of wandering, you came across a tall building. It looked like one of those stacked hives Dave lived in. 

On top of the roof, you’re pretty sure you could see two people fighting, and after momentarily debating it, you decided to see who it was.

~

You hate these stacked hives. 

They have way too many fucking stairs to climb to get to the top. Luckily, you managed.

You opened the door at the top, and were quite startled by what you saw.

Dave and his human lusus were fighting, and Dave had many injuries that were bleeding profusely.

The human lusus did not seem to care about that, as he landed another blow on Dave’s left shoulder.

Suddenly, the human lusus stopped, and picked up Dave by his collar, “Are you fucking listening?” He said.

You’re pretty sure you saw Dave nod in response

“Speak up.” The human lusus had no emotion in his voice. 

Dave was clearly in pain, and couldn’t just stand there and watch this happen. You had to do something.

“Hey!” You shouted.

Both Dave and his human lusus looked at you, and you’re pretty sure you could see fear behind Dave’s shades.

“And who might you be?” The human lusus asked you. Gog, he sounded creepy.

“It doesn’t fucking matter! You leave my friend alone, you nooklicking excuse for a lusus!”

He dropped Dave, and walked over to you, crouching slightly to be eye to eye with you. Or, eye to shade, since he also wore shades.

“Dude,” He said, “that’s pretty fucking gay,”

And then he punched you in the face.

~~~~~

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and holy shit your Bro just call your best bro gay, and then punched him in the face.

You stood up shaking, as you’d lost quite a bit of blood. You remember your wounds being bigger, but everything was bigger to 9 year old compared to an almost 14 year old.

You walked over to where your Bro and Karkat were. Karkat now had his sickles out, and looked ready to fight Bro.

You couldn’t let him.

You attempted to hit Bro on the back, but he flash stepped out of the way, making you almost hit Karkat instead. 

Turning around, you just barely manage to block Bro’s blow to your back.

And just like that, you two are locked in battle again.

Until Karkat tries to hit Bro with one of his sickles.

Bro blocks Karkats blow easily, and then glares at you before shoving his sword in your chest.

~

You wake with a cold start. If Karkat comes in here, you’ll say that wasn’t you. It’s not like he’d be able to tell if you had the dead ghostly white eyes, since your shades stopped anyone from seeing your eyes.

You didn’t want to go to sleep. You had a feeling that you’d enter the same memory, since it was all that was on your mind.

You curl up in your bed and try not to cry. You end up crying anyway.

You remember that day, the first strife you had, or at least the first one that actually hurt you.

The day before, Bro had been teasing you about the fact that one day you were going to fall in love. You were going to have crushes, and be lovesick.

He asked if you had a crush yet, and you said yes.

He asked what she was like, and you said that you were crushing on a he, not a she.

You didn’t get dinner that night.

You didn’t get any meal ever again.

And your usual, silly little strifes pretty much became a matter of life death.

You learnt that being gay was wrong, and you tried you hardest to find a girl to crush on. Maybe if you crushed on a girl, Bro would forgive you.

When you were 12, you told him you had a crush on Rose. It was true, you did, but he didn’t believe you.

And now here you were, trying to convince yourself you do not have a crush on Karkat, even though it’s so obvious you do.

You wonder how he’s doing, if your apartment and Bro disappeared after you died, or if he was still dealing with him.

You hope Karkat is okay. You hope that’s the last time he sees your Bro before the new session.

…

Suddenly you really don’t want to go to the new session anymore.

~~~~~

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and you just watched Dave's human lusus kill him.

You’re pretty sure human lusii don’t kill their young. 

His body zaps away, telling you that that was in fact the real Dave, and not one from a doomed timeline.

The building morphs into your hive, after Terezi had finished her “improvements”, and Dave’s human lusus morphs into your own. The land just around your hive changes to that of LOPAH.

You need to wake up.

You need to talk to Dave.

~ 

Eventually, you wake up. And when you do, you immediately go to talk to Dave on trollian

carcinoGeneticist [ CG ] began trolling turntechGodhead [ TG ]

CG: DAVE  
CG: DAVE  
CG: DAVE  
TG: yo  
CG: ARE YOU OK  
TG: yeah?  
TG: why wouldnt i be?  
CG: I JUST WITNESSED YOUR HUMAN LUSUS STAB YOU  
CG: I CAN HARDLY IMAGINE YOU’D BE OKAY AFTER SUCH A THING HAPPENED  
TG: what  
TG: i dont remember that  
TG: must’ve been a dead daves memory  
CG: NO IT WASN’T  
CG: WHEN YOU DIED YOU ZAPPED AWAY  
CG: ONLY THOSE OF US WHO ARE ALIVE DO THAT  
TG: huh  
TG: forgot about that  
TG: still  
TG: im fine  
CG: YOU TRIED TO TRICK ME INTO THINKING IT WASN’T YOU  
CG: AND FROM WHAT I’VE SEEN  
CG: IT’S NOT NORMAL AT ALL FOR HUMAN LUSII TO HARM THEIR YOUNG  
TG: dude dont worry about it  
TG: he was just preparing me for the game  
CG: THEN WHY DID HE ATTACK ME  
CG: DAVE  
CG: DAVE  
CG: DAVE ANSWER ME  
CG: DAVE ANSWER ME OR IM COMING TO YOUR RESPITEBLOCK

turntechGodhead [ TG ] is now an idle chum!

CG: GODDAMNIT

carcinoGeneticist [ CG ] ceased trolling turntechGodhead [ TG ]

You get up out of your chair and run to Dave’s respiteblock. 

Rose had told you Dave had a bad childhood.

You didn’t realize how bad it actually was.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I which Dave has a panic attack and Karkat comforts him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, I am officially off the writing high.
> 
> And I’m self-projecting.
> 
> Chapter isn’t proofread.

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and you are freaking the fuck out.

Karkat had seen your memory strife with Bro. He knew it wasn’t normal, and he was now on his way to your room.

You didn’t know what would happen once he got here. Would he yell at you for letting yourself take that kind of a beating? Would he be angry that you hadn’t told him sooner?

Was he coming because he cared, or because he felt he had to?

You began to feel yourself shaking, and you could tell that tears were forming in your eyes. You couldn’t let yourself cry, not now. Not when your cru- Karkat was going to possibly be here soon.

Striders don’t cry.

You pat your eyes with your sleeves to get rid of your tears, and hear 6 loud knocks on your door as you do.

“Dave! Open your fucking door right now!” Karkat’s voice was full of concern, and you hate it.

You didn’t need anyone to take care of you, you’re a Strider. So, you don’t answer.

You hear Karkat try and open the door himself, but you got a room with a lockable door. He can’t get in.

“Dave, I know you’re not ok! So please, open the door.”

He gives the door 9 more hard knocks.

“Dave!”

Your breathing quickens.

You don’t deserve help.

You begin shaking.

You aren’t supposed to be weak.

But here you are, being everything you aren’t supposed to be.

“Dave! Open your door!”

You look at your door knob.

You should really open it.

Open the door.

Open the door, now.

Go to the door, and open it.

Go to the door.

…

…

...

You can’t move.

~~~~~

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and you are desperately trying to open Dave’s door. Unfortunately, his door lockable.

You look in your sylladex for anything that could pry open the door, and find nothing.

Guess you’ll have to use one of your sickles.

“Dave!” You shout. “Open your door, or I’m going to have to pry it open with a sickle!”

No response.

You take a sickle out, and jam it between the door and the door frame. The metal on metal makes a loud clang, and your hear Dave make a whimpering sound.

~

It takes awhile, but eventually you manage to pry the door open. 

In the middle of the room, Dave is standing still. He has his usual blank expression on, but his cheeks are stained with tears, and it looked like he was holding his breath.

“Dave?” You say in the softest voice you can make.

He doesn’t answer.

Your first instinct is to try shoosh-papping him, but you know humans don’t have the same psychological needs as trolls.

Still, you don’t know what else to do.

You slowly approach him, and put one arm around him, holding his shoulder with your hand. Your other hand gently paps his face, and you begin to shoosh him.

Almost immediately, Dave wraps you in a hug and is sobbing into your shoulder.

You can’t reach his face anymore, so instead you rub his back, still shooshing him.

The two of you stayed like that for some time, until Dave calmed down, and quickly let go of you.

“Uh, sorry, I uh, I shouldn’t have uh,” he tries to say, head down.

“Dave.” You put your hand on his shoulder. He stiffened and faced you before relaxing.

“It’s okay,” You tell him.

“No,” he starts, his voice shaking, “it’s, I shouldn’t, I’m not,”

“Hey, hey,” you really don’t want him to break down again. “How about we watch a movie. You can pick it,”

He nods.

~~~~~

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and you are currently watching Good Luck Chuck with Karkat on a couch in the room you and he had dubbed “the movie room”.

You had a panic attack not too long ago, and you feel weak for having it.

You had clung to Karkat like he was going to disappear at any moment, and you had cried like he was already gone.

If Bro had seen you, you’d be strifing right now.

That was also why you and Karkat were sitting on opposite ends of the couch, two guys snuggling while watching a movie was too gay for a cool dude like you.

The fact that you weren’t actually watching the movie, but watching Karkat’s face was another thing.

No one can see you staring at Karkat’s lips, no one knows you’re thinking about how they would feel against yours.

No one knows you're gay for Karkat.

Don’t deny it, you know it’s true.

Right now, you’d really like to curl up against him, and have his arms wrapped around you. It’s way more gay than your Bro would let you get away with, but he’s dead. He can’t tell you what to do.

You should totally lie down against Karkat.

…

You decide against it.

Whatever you two have right now, you don’t want to ruin it. You don’t know what you have, but you don’t want to ruin it.

You remember one of the quadrants was essentially just being really good friends, it was called moral alliance or something. Maybe you and Karkat had that?

You’d have to ask him about it.

For now, you were focused on watching his face, specifically his eyes. His irises used to be just as black as his pupils, but they now were forming very tiny specs of red. The specs of red were so tiny, that you didn’t even realize they were there until now.

You wondered if he knew that his irises were changing.

~

The movie ends, and you slightly panic at the thought that Karkat might leave now. He has no reason nor obligation to stay, but you really want him to stay.

You put your panic on pause when he looks at you with his cute concentrating face.

Yes, his face is cute.

“Dave, I want to ask you something,” he says.

You stiffen. He’s going to ask you about Bro. You don’t want to talk about Bro.

“A’ight, shoot.” You reply coolly, trying to hide your inner panic.

It takes him awhile to answer, but he does answer. “What do you know about moirallegiance?”

You think for a moment, that’s the friend quadrant, right?

“That’s the bro quadrant, right? You shoosh pap each other better, or something?” You try to be as nonchalant about the whole situation as possible.

He looks at the ground. Oh no, you fucked up, didn’t you?

“It’s more… personal than that,” he starts, “It’s someone you go to when everything is wrong, someone you can trust with your whole life story,” he pauses, and takes a deep, shaky breath. 

“I was wondering if…” he pauses again, then turns to face you, fear present in his eyes, “I was wondering if you wanted to be my moirail,”

You stare at him for a little bit, trying to process what he just said. 

You must have been staring at him for too long, as disappointing and anger sets on his face.

“Ugh, nevermind,” he says as he gets up to leave, “it was a stupid question,”

“No,” you say, a bit too quickly, and grab his arm, “I mean, uh, yeah, I’d like that. To be your uh, morale,”

He looks at you with surprise, and then gives you a soft smile.

“It’s moirail,” he says.

And before you know it, he’s hugging you. 

You hug him back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment! They motivate me to write more!
> 
> Aw man dudes, can’t wait till you guys see what I have planned for future chapters.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Karkat remembers something horrible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look at this, an UPDATE!!!
> 
> Still not proofread lol

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and you really need to get over your flush and pitch feelings for Dave. 

The two of you are currently cuddling on the couch, since you managed to convince him that yes, moirails do that, and are binge watching a bunch of movies. Most of them are your rom coms, with a few of Dave’s movies thrown in.

Dave doesn’t have a lot of movies. And the ones he does have, he has for “ironic purposes”.

You look at his face, and wonder what his eyes might look like. You’ve never seen him without them, but perhaps now that he’s your moirail, you’ll be able to see him without his shades.

Your look back at the movie, hoping he doesn’t catch you staring. 

You’ve seen this movie quite a few times, so you’re not too invested in watching it, and instead wonder if Dave is even still awake. A part of you hopes he’s asleep, so you can look at his face more, but you know that if he is asleep, he’s probably going to remember that awful childhood of his.

You decide to hope he’s awake.

~

It isn’t long before you wake up in your recuperacoon.

Unfortunately, the Alternian sun is still up, so you try to go back to sleep. But, something feels…

Strange.

Like you shouldn’t be here.

Oh well, you’ll ask Dave about it when the moon comes up.

Dave.

Oh.

OH.

You’re in a dream bubble. That makes sense.

You hear drones moving about outside, and you try and go back to sleep despite the fear you are now feeling.

It’s only when your lusus starts screaming that you realize what memory this is. The day you almost got culled.

~~~~~

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and you hope this is the last time you sleep, ever. You’re in the same memory as last time, but clearly someone else’s is nearby, as you can hear what sounds like flying robots outside.

You get ready to leave your room and strife your bro on the roof, when something starts screaming outside your door.

It was very loud, and you had to cover your ears with your hands.

The scream was strange. It didn’t quite sound human, or even troll. It sounded, animal. And it didn’t stop.

Eventually, you decided to just open the door and see what was making the noise. 

On the other side of your door was a giant white crab thing in a strange house. The crab thing was screaming, but it stopped when it saw you, and started to make a few click like noises from deep in its abdomen. 

“What the fuck,” You said to it. 

It replied with more clicking.

You stared at it for a moment, before you realized it wasn’t just randomly clicking, it was saying Karkat.

This thing was Karkat's lusus, wasn’t it.

“Is he here?” You asked.

It replied with a different series of clicks, but you couldn’t understand them. 

Eventually you gave up trying to figure out what the giant white crab thing was saying, and ran past it to look for Karkat.

It didn’t take too long to find Karkat’s room. And when you do find it, he is quietly sobbing in his slime bed. 

His eyes were closed, so you couldn’t tell if it was a dead Karkat or not, but you felt obliged to try and help him regardless.

This is what moirails do, right? (Yes, yes it is)

“Karkat?” You say.

He doesn’t hear you, so walk up to him.

“Karkat, hey,” you say as you put a hand on his face. You’re trying to pap him, but honestly the slime is kind of gross.

He opens his eyes, revealing that he is the alpha timeline Karkat, puts his hands on your shoulders, and starts sobbing loudly.

You do your best to shoosh pap him.

“I don’t want to die!” He yells through sobs.

“You’re not going to die,” you reassure him.

He shakes his head. “They, they’re gonna find, they’re gonna find me!” He lets out a cry. “I don’t wanna die, Dave!”

You’re still shoosh papping him, and don’t really know what to say. You don’t know who they are, or why Karkat thinks they’re going to kill him.

“They’re not gonna kill you,” you tell him, “I won’t let them,”

He nodded in response, still crying. You continued to shoosh pap him.

~

After a while, karkat had calmed down and decided to get out of his recuperacoon and get dressed.

He climbed out, shaking a little, and you realized he was only wearing boxers. You aren’t blushing. No way.

You notice he’s quite skinny, as you could even see his jagged alien bones, his sweaters must be quite thick, since you haven’t been able to see them.

You also notice two bright red scars, one under each arm. He’s got other scars too, but the other ones have healed a pale gray. These ones are different.

You decide against asking about them, as there are more important matters at hand. Like the fact Karkat thought someone was going to kill him.

When he’s done getting dressed, he walks towards you and puts his head on your chest. Luckily, his horns are short enough that they aren’t stabbing you. 

You hug him.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” You ask him.

“... yeah,” You weren’t expecting that. Maybe it has something to do with you two now being morales. Mo-rails? The best friend quadrant.

“Alright, talk,”

He wraps his arms around you, and begins to talk. “You know the hemospectrum, right?”

“Uh, kinda. It’s like, your place in society is based on your blood colour, right?” 

“Yeah,” he takes a breath, “My blood colour isn’t on the hemospectrum. If anyone found out about that, they’d,” his grip around you tightens, and he starts to cry again.

“They’d kill you?” You ask, hoping you were wrong.

He nods, and then looks up at you, “And today, the imperial drones were just barging into random hives,” his speech quickens, “and I knew, that if one came in…” he buries his face in your chest and sobs, unable to finish the sentence. He doesn’t have to.

You rub circles on his back, and make the shooshing noises you know help.

“This place sounds like it was seriously fucked up,” you tell him, “I don’t know why you say it was so great,”

“Aside from all the murder, it was great,” Karkat had started to calm down, and had turned his face to his side so he could breath more easily.

“Still, you almost died,”

“Says the one who actually died in the game,” he retorts. You can hear the joking tone in his voice.

“Yeah but the game is different. The game sets you up to die. It literally exists as a way to kill you, that is its sole purpose. The world you come from before that, shouldn’t be so dangerous,” 

He doesn’t answer.

You hope he’s doing ok.

You’re glad Earth was nothing like Alternia. People only tried to kill you if you were a criminal or gay, and killing was illegal anyway, so it was mostly empty threats. 

Mostly.

Some people still killed other people, there was still unprovoked brutality.

Your Bro strifed you pretty bad, but he was just preparing you for the game…

…

...right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment, they motivate me to write more!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Karkat and Dave get kicked out of a meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayyy hope y’all like this.
> 
> It still ain’t proofread

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and you and Dave are currently sitting on the floor of a memory of your respite block in your old hive, talking about nothing in particular. You had just had a panic attack not too long ago, and Dave was helping you feel better.

“What are those red scars under your arms?” He asks you.

“Uh, what?” Is he talking about your grub scars? You aren’t sure.

“You know, those red scars that are like, here,” he gestures to where his grub scars would be if he had them.

“Oh, those are my grub scars,” Doesn’t he know what grub scars are?

“The fuck are grub scars?” Apparently not.

You sigh, and shake your head. “When trolls hatch, they have 3 pairs of legs. When we pupate, one of those pair of legs is reabsorbed into our bodies, leaving grub scars as the only evidence that they existed,” 

He nods. “Cool,”

“Do humans have anything like that?” You ask him. You know humans don’t have grub scars, but they must have something.

“I guess bellybuttons would be the human version of grub scars,” He tells you.

You stare at him in shock. “Humans have buttons on their bodies?” What the fuck???

He grimaces. “Not exactly. It’s just the leftovers from a tube thing that connected us to our mothers before we were born,”

“That’s really weird, Dave,” You retort.

~

The two of you spoke all night. Nothing else of note was spoke about, and neither of you ever suggested to leave your respiteblock.

When you two eventually woke up, you realized that your husktop was displaying a few notifications from trollian. 

After Dave shifted off of you, you checked to see what the messages said.

gallowsCalibrator [ GC ] began trolling carcinoGeneticist [ CG ]

GC: H3Y  
GC: VR1SK4 1S HOLD1NG 4 M33T1NG 1N TH3 COMMON ROOM  
GC: SO STOP MAK1NG OUT W1TH D4V3 4ND G3T OVER H3R3  
GC: BOTH OF YOU

gallowsCalibrator [ GC ] ceased trolling carcinoGeneticist [ CG ]

You let out a sigh. Why the fuck would Terezi think you and Dave were making out? 

She was probably just trying to get a rise out of you.

“Terezi says Vriska’s holding a meeting in the common room, and we’re supposed to be there,” You say.

Dave nods. “A’ight. Let’s go then,”

~~~~~

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and you and Karkat have just arrived at Vriska’s meeting in the common room. Rose and Kanaya were sitting next to each other on a couch, Terezi was sitting on the floor in front of the Rose and Kanaya, and Vriska was standing, facing them all.

“About time you two showed up,” Vriska says to you, “we were starting to think Gamzee had killed you,”

Everyone looks at you two, and Karkat flips off Vriska, which makes her and Terezi chuckle.

“Just sit down,” Terezi tells you.

You sit down on the couch next to Rose, and Karkat sits on the floor in front of you.

Vriska starts talking again, something about her “sources”, and stuff about Gamzee, and the new session, but you aren’t really paying attention. All your focus is on the hair of the troll sitting in front of you.

His hair just looks so soft, like a cloud almost. But, at the same time, it must be really thick, since it barely moves when he does.

You wish you could see his face, and stare into his eyes for all of eternity.

Dear gog that was gay.

That was really fucking gay.

And you know what? Fuck it. You, Dave Strider, are gay for Karkat Vantas. You fully accept it.

Fuck Bro and what he would say on the matter, he’s dead. He can’t tell you what to do.

Of course, you can’t tell Karkat how you feel, since you and he are in the best friend quadrant, and you know trolls can’t have the same person in more than 1 quadrant at a time. They can vacillate, but that changes the whole dynamic of the relationship, and you really like this whole “moirail” thing. It’s nice. You’d like more, but you don’t want to lose this.

“Dave!” You hear Vriska yell at you, pulling you from your thoughts.

“Hmm?” You reply.

“Ugh,” she lets out an annoyed sigh, “none of my sources have been able to tell me anything about the new sessions version of your ancestor, and I need this information!” She pauses, “So tell us what he was like,” 

You shrug, “He liked puppets, I guess, I dunno. The guy kept to himself mostly,” 

Karkat looks at you, and you can see the worry in his eyes. He knows something’s wrong.

“Anything else?” Vriska pushed.

“He could use a sword really well,” you pause to think, he hated anything feminine on guys, really liked sex, really liked violence, probably had a puppet fetish, and didn’t feed you. You didn’t want to tell Vriska all that. “That’s all I really knew about him. Sorry,” you shrug again.

“Siiiiiiiigh, oh well, guess I’ll have to work with what I’ve got,”

Vriska continued to plan, and Karkat returned his attention to her, or you thought he had, until he pulled Rose’s book and pen off the table, and started to draw a grid.

You didn’t have anything better to do, so you grabbed his hand that was hold the pen and started to draw dicks instead.

He shot you a glare that both looked like he was going to kill you, and that he was going to burst out laughing. You smirked, and continued to draw dicks.

Gog this was gay.

You continued to draw dicks, with Karkat’s hand still in yours, and eventually you both started to chuckle a bit. Well, it was less like chuckling, and more like suppressed laughter.

“What are you two doing?” Vriska demanded, and you both froze, looked at each other, smiled, then burst out laughing. God, his laughter was beautiful.

Vriska was not happy.

“If you two aren’t going to take this seriously, then you can leave,” she retorted.

“Ok, ok,” you say, trying to catch your breath, “We’ll leave,”

You and Karkat get up to leave, still calming down from your laughing fit.

As you walk out, you throw your arm around his shoulder, and you swear you see him blush.

~~~~~

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and Dave really needs to stop being so fucking attractive.

Seriously, he puts his arm around you, and you react like it’s a flush gesture, when it is most commonly associated with moirallegiance!

You were lucky he wasn’t here to see your face blushing a solid candy red, you couldn’t have him knowing you had flushed feelings for him.

Dave had gone to his respiteblock to work on his “ill beats”, and you had said you were going to read. You knew you weren’t going to read, and you wonder if he could tell you were lying.

Letting out a sigh, you buried your face in your hands. Why did you have to fall for him? He had said he wasn’t into boys, and even if he was, you weren’t exactly good looking. 

You had a severe overbite, your hair was a mess, and your eyes, oh god your eyes. Soon, your irises would fill with your blood colour, a bright candy red. 

You dreaded that day.

It wasn’t a normal troll eye colour, and it wasn’t even a normal human eye colour. You were truly alone.

Getting up, you decided to look at more of your faults in detail, so you headed to the mirror.

When you looked in, you looked at your rough skin, and remember how soft Dave’s skin felt. He probably hates how your skin feels. 

You look at your mouth, with sharp teeth hanging out. Who with a proper thinkpan would kiss someone with such a hideous overbite?

You look at your eyes, and notice the small flecks of candy red that have begun to form in your irises.

The day you dreaded has begun. Soon, those tiny flecks will take over your entire irises, and that thought alone makes you break down in tears.

…

You need your moirail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment, they motivate me to write more!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Dave is lovesick

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at this shit. Two chapters, one day, and I’m not even on a writing high.
> 
> Also the last chapter got two comments????? Thank you?!??!
> 
> Heads up this ain’t proofread
> 
> Also don’t judge Dave’s rap, I made it and I’m shit at stuff like that. Just pretend it’s really good and really sweet.

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and you are supposed to be writing some ill beats, but all you can think about is how your Bro is going to be in the new session. 

What will he be like? What will he think of you?

What will he think of Karkat? Will he try to hurt him like he did in the memory? He better fucking not.

You should probably talk to Karkat about all this. With the quadrant you’re in, you’re supposed to tell each other everything, and this especially is something you need to talk about.

But right now, you don’t want to deal with it. You just want to write some raps.

You don’t know what you’re going to write about at first, but you eventually decide to write about Karkat, and all the things you like about him.

As you sit down to write, your pesterchum chimes. Someone has contacted you.

carcinoGeneticist [ CG ] began trolling turntechGodhead [ TG ]

CG: DAVE  
CG: FUCK  
CG: FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK  
TG: what  
TG: are you ok  
CG: NO  
CG: FUCK  
TG: do you want me to come over  
CG: YES  
TG: ok

turntechGodhead [ TG ] ceased pestering carcinoGeneticist [ CG ]

You run. You run to Karkat’s room like your life depends on it. He’s not okay, and he’s asked for you.

~

You open his door, and see him curled up on the floor in front of a mirror on his wall.

You hear him sniffle. He’s crying.

You sit down next to him, and put a hand on his back. “Hey, Karkat,” you say in your most gentle voice.

He looks at you, with big red tears in his eyes, and a look so full of fear and sadness that you almost start crying too.

He throws his arms around you in a hug, and sobs into your shoulder. You hug him back, and rub circles on his back while shooshing him softly.

You lose track of time like this, and you hope you can help with whatever has brought him to this state. It breaks you to see him like this.

Eventually, Karkat calms down, and pulls out of the hug. 

“I-I’m sorry,” he says, “I just, fuck, I looked in the mirror, and I saw my eyes, they, they,” he stops, takes a deep breath, then continues, “they’ve begun to change to my blood colour, and, shit, this eye colour isn’t normal for anyone! Not trolls, not humans!” He buries his face in his hands.

Huh. So his eyes are going red.

You have an idea.

“Hey,” You say, and put a hand on his shoulder, “I don’t know exactly what you’re going through, but if it’s in any consolation,” You reach for your shades, and take them off. Your eyes are closed at first, but you blink them a few times, then look Karkat in the eyes, “You won’t be alone,”

~~~~~

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and you’re seeing Dave without his shades for the first time, ever. 

His eyes, they’re candy red, just like yours are turning. 

And you’re not gonna lie, you almost kissed him.

He’s so exposed like this, you can actually see the worry building up in his eyes over the fact that you’re just staring at him.

You smile, “Thank you,” you say, and hug him again. 

“You’re welcome,” He says as hugs you back. 

This hug only lasts a few seconds, and when you separate, he puts his shades back on.

“Why do you wear those shades all the time?” You ask him.

“Two reasons,” He starts, “one, is that red eyes aren’t exactly normal for humans, so I’d rather hide my eyes than be made fun of. It’s like why you wear gray instead of red, except no one's trying to kill me over it. Two, is that my eyes are really fucking sensitive to light, side effect if them being red, and it fucking hurts like hell to have my eyes exposed to bright lights for too long,”

“Huh,” You reply. You don’t know what else to say.

“So,” He says as he stands up, “You feeling better?” 

“Yeah, a lot better actually,” you stand up, “You can go back to your respiteblock now, if you want,” 

“You sure you don’t want me to stay?” He asks, and you can hear the genuine concern in his voice.

“Yeah, I was actually reading a good book. It made some mention about faces, and that’s how all this started. I’d actually like to go back to reading it,” You lie. You really just needed a bit more time to process the fact that Dave has red eyes.

“Alright then, bye,” he says as he waves and heads out. You wave back. 

When Dave closes the door behind him, you look back at your face in the mirror. 

You still thought you looked ugly, but at least you were going to have Dave’s eyes one day. That was something to look forward to.

You smiled at your reflection.

~~~~~

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and you have just returned to your room from comforting your best bro, Karkat.

You sit down at your desk to write exactly what you were going to write before you left, which was all the things you like about Karkat.

And the words just fall together perfectly.

“His name is Karkat Vantas  
And he’s got a sweet ass  
That I think no one could pass  
And not take in his sass

He’s got this corse ass skin  
And I can’t help but grin  
He is such a win  
And I know I’m all in

His smile lights up the night  
With that cute overbite  
It takes away my might  
Wish I could be his knight

He’s got the darkest hair  
And it’s just not fair  
That he would not care  
To make me his pair”

You look at your completed piece, and smile. You wish you could show this to him, but you can’t. He’s your best bro, and you would never force your best bro into a relationship.

You remember how Karkat blushed when you put your arm around him. Did that mean something? Or were your eyes just playing tricks on you?

Your eyes were probably just playing tricks on you, since there’s no way he likes you that way.

Sure, you’re tall, but you’re awkwardly tall. You take up so much space, and you don’t even know what to do with yourself.

You’d also started to break out with acne, and it was already getting ugly. You doubt trolls have to deal with anything like that.

He probably hated your shades too. Probably thought they were ugly as fuck, but your eyes would remind him of his blood colour, and he always seemed so defensive over that.

Although, he did seem relieved when he saw your eyes, so maybe he did like them?

That didn’t mean you could take off your shades though. He’d notice you staring at him, and you’re shit at hiding the emotion in your eyes. He’d know you like him in that way, and he’d hate you for it.

Besides, if you did enter a relationship with Karkat, what would your Bro say? Sure, the one in the new universe is going to be a little different, but chances are he’s still going to resent anything gay. That’s just your luck.

You sigh and let your head fall onto your desk.

You wish you could be as open to Karkat about how you felt as he was to you, but all your problems linked back to your crush on him, and that was the one thing you couldn’t tell him.

You lift your head up and focus back on your rap.

Karkat could never see this, but you also couldn’t bring yourself to destroy it, so you tuck it gently under a pile of your other raps. No one reads these but you, since everyone else hates them, so you’re safe.

You need a coffee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment, they motivate me to write more!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Terezi and Vriska try and play matchmaker

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished this like, right as AO3 went down and I almost screamed. Oh well, at least y’all are getting it now!
> 
> Also this still isn’t proofread.

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and you are heading to the common room to get some coffee. 

You hope the meeting is over, so you won’t have to talk to anyone about your relationship with Karkat.

When you walk in, you only see Vriska and Terezi sitting at one of the tables in front of Terezi’s computer. At least your psycho analytical sister isn’t here, she’d have a field day with you right now.

“Hey, coolkid!” Terezi says to you.

“Hey ‘rezi, what’s up?” You reply, as you head over to the coffee machine.

“Nothing really, how are you and Karkat?” There’s something mischievous about the way she asked her question.

Vriska snickered, “You mean what are you and Karkat?”

“Vriska,” Terezi sighs, “I told you Karkat can’t separate his feelings into quadrants!”

“I have a hard time believing that, he’s completely obsessed with the quadrants in his stories,” Vriska retorts.

“It’s to compensate for his inability to use them himself,” Terezi explains. “And as the person who Karkat last tried to enter a relationship with, it’s painfully obvious he wants to be in a relationship with Dave,”

What.

“Nah man,” You say, trying not to freak out over what Terezi just said, “Karkat and I are bros, no romance here,”

“Maybe not to you, but to Karkat there clearly is,” Terezi teases.

“Definitely in the pale quadrant,” Vriska adds, “but I’ve seen more than a few encounters that could be red or pitch,”

“Ok, but consider this,” You take out a mug from your sylladex and fill it with coffee, “he pretty much only has me to talk to, so obviously we’re gonna be close,” you finish filling up the mug, “but not that close,” Sure you were more rails with Karkat, but you weren’t going to give these two the satisfaction of knowing that.

“Dave,” Terezi says while typing on her computer, “I honestly thought you two had already fucked, and I’m still not totally against the possibility that you two have, and are just hiding it,” she pauses, and closes her computer, “but honestly, there are so many times that I can smell the sexual tension around you two. Just admit you like him,”

“But I don’t like him,” You lie. “And he doesn’t like me,”

“Oh my god,” Vriska practically shouts, “did you not hear anything Terezi just said about him obviously liking you?”

“Well, yeah but-” 

“Then how could you say that he doesn’t like you?” Vriska interrupts.

You shrug. You aren’t about to spill all your insecurities onto Vriska.

You hear someone stomping towards the common room, and immediately realized it had to Karkat. No one else would stomp like that.

Sure enough, Karkat storms in.

“What the ever loving fuck, Terezi?!” He shouts.

“Karkat! You’re here!” Terezi replies cheerfully. “Now confess your undying love for Dave,”

~~~~~

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and Terezi did not just say that.

“Wha- no, I don’t, ugh!” You try and form a coherent sentence, but words are failing you. You’re also pretty sure you’re blushing too. 

You look at Dave, who is awkwardly standing by the coffee machine with a mug of coffee in his hand.

He is really fucking good looking.

“I’m just gonna go,” Dave says, he goes to leave. 

“No,” Vriska replies, making Dave stop, “You’re staying here,”

“But I’ve got beats to rhyme and music to mix,” Dave tells her, “I’m in a creative flow, Vriska, you wouldn’t want to ruin the creative flow, would you?”

“You and Karkat have unresolved sexual tension,” Terezi no, “and it’s about time you resolved it before it crushes everyone on the meteor,” Terezi no!

“Terezi what the fuck!” You exclaim, “You don’t just fucking say that, you buldgelicker!”

Vriska snickers mischievously “I’m sure you’d like Dave to lick your buldge,”

Vriska and Terezi burst out laughing, and you’re pretty sure your face was completely covered in blush.

“No, ew!” You shout. You’re not sure if it was a lie, but now is not the time to consider that.

“What even is a buldge?” You hear Dave ask. This question only makes Vriska and Terezi laugh more.

“Why don’t you ask Karkat to show you his!” Terezi retorts.

You bury you face in your hands in your face.

Why did you have to answer to Terezi’s texts, and let her convince you to come here.

“First of all,” You start, lowering your hands from your face, “I don’t like Dave that way,” Terezi laughs harder, “and second of all, Dave has stated multiple times that he’s ‘not gay’ so it doesn’t even matter!”

You look at Dave. You can’t tell his expression exactly, since his shades are blocking his eyes, but you’d almost say he looks… sad? 

“Wait,” Vriska says, calming down from her laughing fit, “what does ‘gay’ mean?”

“It, uh,” Dave begins, and you can hear his voice wavering, “it means a guy who like other guys, romantically, uh, which I do not.”

“Well that’s stupid,” Vriska retorts.

“I’m sure Karkat could make you gay!” Terezi teases, “Karkat, don’t you wanna make Dave gay?”

“Fuck this! I’m leaving!” You say, and storm out.

“But Karkat,” Terezi says in between laughs, “You must confess your undying love for Dave!!”

You don’t even give her the satisfaction of an answer, you just walk away.

~

You get to your respiteblock, and immediately fall on your pile and start crying.

It was now so obvious that you liked Dave. You’d have to be the stupidest fuckass in paradox space not to see that. 

And he’s not gay, he doesn’t like you. Sure, he looked disappointed when you said he wasn’t gay, but chances are he just wanted to say it himself. 

You have fucked up your best relationship ever. 

Actually, no, this was all Terezi’s and Vriska’s fault. They’re the ones who ruined your moirallegiance with Dave. They’re the ones who are going to make him never talk to you again.

He’s never going to talk to you again.

It doesn’t matter who’s fault it is, Dave is never going to talk to you again.

You lie there, crying. You really want to be with Dave right now, cuddling in his arms or something.

Instead, you got up and looked in your mirror.

Fat candy red tears streaked down your gray cheeks.

Red.

Dave’s colour.

Dave, who you were in a quadrant mess for.

Dave, who is the best moirail you’ve ever had.

Dave, who makes you feel safe even when safety is impossible.

Dave, who is never going to talk to you again.

You let out a scream, and punch the mirror. It shatters, and some of the pieces cut your hand, letting your candy red blood out.

Always red.

Paradox space just loves to make you feel like shit, doesn’t it?

You’re about to fall back down in tears, when your husktop chimes, signifying that someone is trying to contact you.

It’s probably Vriska or Terezi, bugging you about Dave. You should really block them both.

You walk over to your husktop to block Vriska and Terezi, when you realize it wasn’t either of them who was trying to contact you. It wasn’t Rose or Kanaya either.

No, it wasn’t any of them.

It was Dave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment, they motivate me to write more!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Katkat purrs and chirps

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wooooo this chapter is longer than normal!!! Also almost forgot Karkat had a bloody hand.
> 
> Nothing is proofread

turntechGodhead [ TG ] began pestering carcinoGeneticist [ CG ]

TG: hey dude  
TG: you ok?  
TG: i cant believe what terezi and vriska did back there  
TG: not cool  
TG: are you there?  
CG: YEAH I’M HERE  
CG: WOULD IT BE POSSIBLE TO JUST  
CG: FORGET WHAT HAPPENED WITH TEREZI AND VRISKA?  
TG: yea sure man  
TG: anyway  
TG: wanna go to can town?  
CG: SURE  
TG: alright see you there

turntechGodhead [ TG ] ceased pestering carcinoGeneticist [ CG ]

~~~~~

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and you kind of never want to talk to Vriska or Terezi ever again. 

But that doesn’t matter right now, since you’re on your way to cantown to meet up with your two best bros, Karkat and the mayor.

As you walk down the halls to cantown, your mind wanders back to what happened with Terezi and Vriska.

Terezi had seemed so sure that Karkat liked you in that way, and you almost started to consider telling him you liked him.

How stupid could you be.

You couldn’t help but be a little sad when he said he didn’t like you that way.

Alright scratch that, you were completely heartbroken.

But that doesn’t matter, he’s still your morale, or whatever the best friend quadrant is called, and you aren’t going to stop being that just because Terezi and Vriska decided to tease you.

You walk into cantown, and the mayor runs up to you and hugs you. 

You hug him back.

“Hey dude,” you say, “is Karkat here yet?”

He shakes his head.

“Alright. He should be here soon,” you tell him.

He points over to where you had drawn a few too many roads last time you were here.

“Yeah we should probably do something about that.”

Just as you start to walk over to the roads, you hear someone walk in. Their footsteps have more force than the average person would put it, so you assume it’s Karkat.

“Hey,” You hear Karkat say, and the mayor runs to hug him.

You turn to face him and reply, only to see that tears have stained his cheeks, and his right hand bleeding. Your excited smile changes quickly to a worried frown.

“Shit dude, what happened?” You ask.

He just looks at the ground.

You walk over to him, and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, Karkat, you ok?” You’re speaking in the softest voice you can manage.

And then he’s hugging you. 

“Thank you,” you hear him say, very quietly. You had no idea he could talk this quietly.

You hug him back, and you stay like that for a while, until you speak up.

“We should go bandage your hand,” You say as you let go of him.

He lets go of you and shrugs.

The mayor then lets go of Karkat, and nods.

“See, dude? Even the mayor thinks you should bandage your hand,” You tell him.

“Yeah, ok,” he replied. “I’ve got some bandages in my respiteblock,”

“Good, ‘cause I don’t,” You say, and the two of you head off to his room.

~

When you get to Karkat’s room, the first thing you notice is his broken and bloody mirror.

“Did you seriously punch your mirror?” You ask.

He shrugs in response, but you take that as a yes.

“Damn dude, that’s seven years bad luck,” You tell him.

He whips his head around to look at you, “What?”

“Breaking a mirror,” you say, “makes you get seven years of bad luck,”

“Of course it’s a human superstition,” he retorts, “and my life is already bad enough as it is, how could it get any worse?”

“Hey, don’t say that,” You ruffle his hair with your hand. He glares at you. You don’t remove your hand, his hair feels nice, “So where are the bandages?”

He walks over to his desk, and your hand falls out of his hair. You really liked the way his hair feels.

He opens one of the drawers. He puts his left hand in, and pulls out a roll of gray bandage cloth. It has a few safety pins in it too.

You walk over and he hands you the roll.

You pull out the safety pins, set them down on the desk, and start to wrap Karkat’s hand with the bandage.

When you’re done, you take two of the safety pins to pin the bandage in place, and put the other safety pins back in the roll.

Karkat puts his head on your chest.

“You smell like shitty coffee,” He says.

You put your arms around him, and comb his hair with your right hand. His hair isn’t as soft as it looked, but you still liked the way it felt.

“Yeah, I guess I would. Dropped the mug full of coffee in the common room,” You reply.

“Well shit,” He pauses, “did the mug break?”

“Yeah, but I’ve got like 20 other ones just like it,” You tell him.

He hums in response. 

You stay like that in silence, and you’re enjoying it honestly. He’s really warm. Like, really warm. Kind of like he just finished being dried in a dryer.

Even though you know he doesn’t love you, it’s nice to still be able to do things like this with him. He fits so perfectly in your arms, and, wait, is he…

Is he purring?

You can’t believe how adorable it is that he’s purring in your arms.

It would be so easy to kiss him right now, so, so easy. But that’s not something you can do.

As much as this would be a perfect moment to kiss him, he doesn’t like you that way. 

At least you can listen to his adorable purring.

And then he chirped. That’s adorable.

~~~~~

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and you just chirped while in Dave’s arms. 

Your whole body stiffens, and you stop purring.

Chirping is something you do in front of your matesprit, not your moirail. Dave probably doesn’t know that, but no one chirps while they’re purring.

It feels… wrong. Well, wrong in the sense that someone is going to kill you for doing. But it feels right to purr and chirp and Dave. What the fuck.

“You ok?” Dave asks. He’s probably wondering why you just froze.

“Yeah,” You reply, “we should go back to cantown,”

“Yeah, ok” He says, and lets go of you.

As you walk over to cantown, he drapes his right arm over your shoulders.

~

When you return to cantown, the mayor is excited to see you.

He points over to the area that Dave had drawn too many roads in, and you and Dave decide to add in a “suburban community”.

Which is just a bunch of normal hives.

Throughout the construction, Dave is constantly making sure you’re ok. The bandage needed to go around your fingers, so your right hand is pretty useless. Your thumb isn’t wrapped, but all your fingers are stuck together.

At some point, Dave started to rap under his breath. He’d done this before, but every time you brought it up, he denied doing it.

You decided not to tell him he was doing it, since you know he’ll stop, and you like listening to him do this.

At first, you aren’t really paying attention to what he’s saying. Something about a sweet ass, a smile that lights up the night, things that could never apply to you.

At certain times, it sounds like he’s saying your name, but it’s followed by all these compliments that just can’t be about you.

~

When all the extra roads finally have an adequate number of hives on them, Dave stands up.

“Well, that’s finally fixed,” he says.

“I had fun,” You reply as you stand up as well.

He nods in response.

There’s a moment of awkward silence.

“I’m gonna go back to my room, maybe draw some comics or something, I dunno,” Dave says, “You wanna come?”

“Sure,” You answer.

And off you go to Dave’s respiteblock, as the mayor waves you goodbye.

~

The walk to Dave’s respite block is quiet, neither of you really have anything to say, so you’re not too surprised when Dave immediately sits down at his husktop desk when you get to his respiteblock.

You don’t really know what else to do, so you curl up in Dave’s lap. 

You start purring almost immediately, you feel safe, and you’re happy. 

Eventually, you begin to let out the occasional chirp. You consider leaving, but decide against it. You are very comfortable, and Dave doesn’t even know what chirping means, so he’s not going to say anything.

~~~~~

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and currently, Karkat is curled up in your lap and purring and chirping, and it’s really adorable.

His body is very warm, and you begin to wonder if it’s a troll thing, or a Karkat thing. Part of you hopes it’s a Karkat thing.

You were going to draw a some comics or something, but it’s hard to do that when you’ve got an alien in your lap.

Instead, you run your right hand through his hair. 

You really like his hair. You’re going to need to find more reasons to run your hands through it.

As you listen to his purrs and chirps, you think to yourself that it would be really cool to use them in a mix.

You click the record button on your computer, hoping it picks up his purrs and chirps, and after a minute or two, you stop recording.

~

After a while, you start to get really hungry.

You’re not surprised when your stomach growls and you, but you are surprised when Karkat looks at you with complete terror in his eyes. He also stopped purring and chirping, which makes you a little sad.

“What the fuck was that noise?” He asks.

“It was my stomach, telling me to go eat shit,” You reply.

“Oh,” he says, “then you should probably eat something,”

He slides off your lap, and you frown. You are now kind of cold.

“Yeah, I probably should eat something,” You tell him, and get out of your chair and head over to your stash of doritos.

You had a stash of doritos in your room back on earth, for the days when you didn’t want to leave your room in fear of a strife, but still wanted to eat something.

That sort of sounds fucked up, when you put it like that.

You pull out a bag, and turn to sit back in your chair, when you notice Karkat is reading the raps on your desk.

“Some of these are really good,” He says.

“Some?” You ask.

“Well, some are completely illegible with all the crossed out words, but the ones that are legible are really good,” he replies, “mind if I take these back to my respiteblock to read them?”

“Uh, don’t mind at all,” You say.

He takes the whole pile, which isn’t all that big, and goes to leave.

“Wait, you’re gonna read them now?” You ask.

“Yeah, I really wanna read them,” he tells you, “I’ll be back once I’ve read them all,”

“Alright,” you reply, “see ya,”

“See you,” And just like that, he’s out.

Wait.

At the bottom of that pile was the rap you wrote about him.

He’s going to read it, and you know he doesn’t like you that way.

You fucked up.

You completely fucked up.

You can’t go and grab it, because then he’ll question why he can’t read it, and will stop at nothing to read it.

You fucked up.

And you know what happens when you fuck up?

Bro finds out, and beats you.

You discard your bag of doritos, and lie down in your bed, trying to go to sleep to get your early punishment over with.

But sleep eludes you.

You need this punishment, it’s the only thing that could keep you from fucking up in the future.

Wait.

You have a sword.

You can punish yourself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment, they motivate me to write more!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which bad things happen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THERE IS SELF HARM IN THIS CHAPTER!! DAVE ALSO IS HAPPY ABOUT BEING HURT!!!
> 
> THIS IS A BAD CHAPTER!!!
> 
> Also it’s not proofread.

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and you are currently reading Dave’s raps in your respiteblock.

They’re all really good, though most of them you don’t quite understand, due to the references he makes to things that no longer exist.

Some are crossed out so many times, that you can’t read them. You wonder what they say.

Others are just a bunch of dick jokes, and assurances that he’s not gay. He sure does like to say that he’s not gay.

There are a few that are actually very sincere. 

One was about his fear of seeing blood, and the sound of metal on metal.

Another was about his unwillingness to fight, ever again.

Each one had at least a few corrections, and not a single page was unedited. This made sense, he’s not perfect, and he’s writing all of these in pen.

And then you get to the last page. It has no edits, and his writing is probably the cleanest in this one.

And there, on the very first line, is your name.

Each line has a compliment for you, and you almost cry.

He’s always said he’s not gay, and then he does this? 

You do end up crying when you read the last two lines, where he says it isn’t fair that you won’t be his pair, and you know he means romantic pair.

He thinks you don’t like him.

Thoughts race into your mind, does he know that this one was in the stack? Should you confront him about this? Should you pretend you never read it?

...

Was this some kind of sick joke?

No no no, he’s not joking. He can’t be.

You bury your face in your hands, and debate telling Kanaya about all this.

You decide against it, and instead will sleep on it. Maybe you’ll meet a doomed version of yourself who confessed to Dave, and thus created a doomed timeline.

Maybe things are finally going to go right in your miserable life.

~

Sleep doesn’t come very quickly, and you’re pretty sure you were just laying there for a few hours before you actually fell asleep.

You wake in your recuperacoon, and it doesn’t take you long to remember why you’re here.

You get dressed, and open your bedroom door.

On the other side, is not your hive. It’s Dave’s. And it’s the exact same as the last time you were here.

You don’t hear any fighting, so you check the other rooms for Dave.

This place is really gross, with what you’ve learnt are sex puppets all over the place. Dave says they’re called “smuppets”, and he doesn’t seem to like talking about them. You don’t blame him.

None of the other rooms have Dave in them, and you’ve seen the smuppets in positions you wish you never had seen them in, so you decide to to head upstairs to the roof.

As you walk, you hear someone let out a short scream.

You’re pretty sure it was Dave.

You run up the stairs.

When you open the door on the roof, you see the floor covered in blood, Dave’s blood, and Dave’s Bro standing over a very injured Dave, who is wearing his broken record shirt and jeans instead of his godtier outfit.

Dave’s shade’s are nowhere to be found, and you can see his candy red eyes.

“Hey!” You shout, and pull out your sickles.

Both Dave and his Bro look at you. You can see the panic rising in Dave’s face as his Bro approaches you.

He stops right in front of you, and crouches so you’re eye to shade.

“Who are you, Dave’s fuckin boyfriend?” He says with no emotion whatsoever.

It enrages you.

“Yes,” You say without thinking.

~~~~~

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and you are ready to punish yourself.

You take off your shirt and put it on your bed, and take out your sword as you sit down on the ground.

You slowly drag the tip of the blade across your right wrist, not even wincing at the pain. You’ve had worse.

You drag it across your wrist again, deeper this time, and slower. It starts to sting a little.

You do it again, deeper and slower. It’s getting quite painful.

You move up your arm, keeping the same depth as the third cut, but moving the blade even slower.

You keep doing this, each cut a little higher on your arm, and each cut a little slower.

Eventually, you run out of room on your right arm, so you put the hilt of your sword in your right hand and prepare to do the same in your left arm, only it’s quite hard to hold the sword.

Your right hand is not your dominant hand, and it’s weak from blood loss, so instead of doing the same thing on your left arm as you did on your right, you do something different.

You make three slow, long, deep cuts that go from your left shoulder to your left wrist.

You put your sword hilt back in your left hand, and take off your pants to cut your legs.

You do a mix of vertical and horizontal cuts, but each one is deep, slow, and painful.

When you run out of room on your legs, you look at your torso.

You’ve already ruined your limbs, why not continue?

You drag the blade across your torso, with no real direction in mind. These cuts are shallower, so you’re sure to spend more time on each cut.

When you run out of room on your torso, you drop your sword, and lie down. 

You feel light headed, and you assume it’s probably due to the loss of blood.

You chuckle, maybe you’ll pass out, enter a dream bubble, then strife Bro.

You hope that’s what happens.

~

Eventually, you do sleep.

You wake in your bed, and remember why you’re sort of happy it’s the day of your first strife. 

You fucked up, you deserve this.

You’re only in your boxers, you you put on your broken record shirt and a pair of jeans.

You wait quite a while before heading to the roof, knowing it’ll make the strife worse.

When you get to the roof, Bro looks at you for a moment before speaking.

“Striders aren’t gay, and you better not be this late next time,” He says, and then he attacks you.

You don’t block his attacks, and are only dodging out of reflex. 

At some point, your shades are knocked off.

You think of Karkat. Of course you do. You’ve lost a lot of blood, and you aren’t thinking straight. Ha.

Karkat.

He’s so fucking perfect.

Too bad he hates you.

You’re pretty sure you’re about to die of bloodloss, when you hear someone who sounds like Karkat shout.

“Hey!” He says, you look over and, hey, it is Karkat. He’s even got his sickles out. 

He shouldn’t be here.

He hates you, and you’re pretty sure Bro is going to attack him for interrupting your strife.

Bro walks over to Karkat, and squats to be at eye level to him.

“Who are you, Dave’s fuckin boyfriend?” Bro asks, with no emotion as usual.

“Yes,” Karkat replies, full of confidence.

Wait what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment, they motivate me to write more!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Karkat helps

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayyyy y’all, enjoy this!! We getting close to a confession I think~
> 
> Also, the chapter is not proofread.

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and you just told Dave’s Bro that you are Dave’s boyfriend, even though you aren’t.

Dave’s Bro must not have been expecting that, as he takes a small step back.

You use this distraction to your advantage, and attempt to strike him with your sickle.

You are successful.

You look back at Dave, and he looks even more afraid than before.

He looks absolutely terrified.

His mouth opens in an attempt to say something, but he can’t speak. He’s lost too much blood.

You feel something sharp slash your chest.

Dave’s Bro has cut you. It’s not deep enough to kill you, but it still hurts a lot.

You can feel the memory getting weaker as Dave loses blood.

At least when he wakes up, he won’t be hurt.

Dave’s Bro flash steps over to Dave, and picks him up by the collar, dangling him in the air.

“You know, Dave,” His Bro starts. You already don’t like where this is going, “it took that guy long enough to get here and try to save your pathetic ass. I don’t think he actually cares about you,”

That enrages you.

You let out a scream, and run to destroy Dave’s Bro with your sickles, but he drops Dave and flash steps away.

The memory gets weaker.

Dave’s Bro is flash stepping everywhere. You doubt you’d be able to hit him, so instead you wrap your arms around Dave, trying to protect him.

He feels so fragile right now, and he barely feels real with his limp limbs.

Dave’s Bro stops flash stepping right in front of you, and raises his sword to impale you.

Just before he does impale you, Dave zaps away, and the memory morphs into one of your own.

Panicking, you run your sickle through your chest in an attempt to wake yourself.

It works, and you vow to only do that when absolutely necessary, like right now.

Someone has tried to contact you on trollian, but you ignore them. Dave is your priority.

You grab the bandage roll before you leave, just incase.

As you run down the hallway, you’re not really watching where you’re going, and run into someone.

You prepare to swear them off, when you realize it is none other than the murder clown Gamzee.

You still swear him off.

“Not fucking now you nookmuncher!” You shriek. Holy fuck you just shrieked.

You try to run past him, but he grabs your wrist.

“Karbro-” You don’t like that nickname.

“Shut the fuck up, and go back to sucking your own buldge in the vents!” You yell at him. He looks hurt.

“Hey, don’t be like that,” He coos.

“I am kind of trying to be somewhere, so stay out of my fucking way!” You reply, and snap your wrist out of his grip, and continue to run to Dave’s respiteblock.

You look behind your back a few times, just to make sure Gamzee isn’t following you. You don’t see him.

~

When you get to Dave’s respiteblock, you take a deep breath, and knock on his door 6 times.

“Dave, it’s Karkat,” You say.

No answer.

You knock again, 9 times.

“Dave, open up!”

“It’s unlocked,” You hear Dave’s strained voice say.

You open the door, and almost don’t believe what you see.

~~~~~

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and you just died from blood loss in a memory.

You’re back in your room, in a puddle of your own blood.

Your cuts are still bleeding, and you know they won’t kill you. It’d be a pathetic way to die, not heroic, and it would be too easy to let you go without suffering more, so it’s not just.

You realize that someone has been trying to contact you on pesterchum, and drag yourself over to your computer to see who it was. Might as well try and make everyone think you’re ok.

tentacleTherapist [ TT ] began pestering turntechGodhead [ TG ]

TT: Hello Dave.  
TT: It’s been awhile since we’ve spoken properly.  
TT: I hope you’ve been well.  
TT: Dave?  
TT: Are you there?

turntechGodhead [ TG ] is now an idle chum!

TT: Of course.  
TT: Have fun with Karkat.  
TT: And don’t forget to use protection.  
TG: rose gross no  
TT: There you are.  
TT: Don’t pretend you don’t want to Dave, It’s quite obvious you do.  
TG: rose no  
TG: im more than fine with just having him purr and chirp in my lap  
TG: that shit is adorable.  
TT: He chirps at you?  
TG: yeah  
TG: does kanaya not chirp at you?  
TT: No she does.  
TT: I’m just surprised that Karkat does, since trolls only chirp at their Matesprit.  
TG: haha rose  
TG: very funny  
TG: yeah ok so karkat considers me his mate spirit and im actually a horror terror  
TT: I’m not joking.  
TG: sure you aren’t  
TG: whatever

turntechGodhead [ TG ] blocked tentacleTherapist [ TT ]

You don’t want to deal with this.

Karkat had called you his boyfriend, and apparently considered you in his love quadrant.

These were all just lies.

If he really cares about you, where was he know?

Bro was right. He doesn’t care.

You fall off your chair, and don’t bother to get up from laying on the ground.

Tears well up in your eyes, but you don’t let them fall.

You hear someone stomping towards your room, and then 6 loud knocks.

“Dave, it’s Karkat,” You hear Karkat say.

A few tears in your eyes begin to fall.

He’s here.

And you’re a fucking mess.

He knocks again, 9 times.

“Dave, open up!” You can hear panic starting in his voice.

“It’s unlocked,” You croak.

You hear the door open, and Karkat gasps.

He mustn’t have expected you to be bleeding from every limb and your torso, while only wearing your red godtier boxers.

“Dave!” He shouts, and runs over to you.

You roll onto your back, and wince at the pain.

“Hey,” You try and say cooly. It’s hard to sound cool when you’re trying not to cry.

He drops to his knees and cover his mouth with his hands.

Red tears start to form in his eyes, the same shade of red as the specs in his irises.

“Oh god, Dave,” he says, his voice shaking.

You sit up, wincing again at the pain, and rest your forehead on his.

And then you cry.

You’re loud, and it’s ugly, but damn it feels good to cry.

You feel him wrap his arms gently around you, as if he’s afraid he’s going to break you.

Your head falls to his shoulder, and you melt into his embrace.

You hear him making shaky shooshes, and feel him softly rubbing circles on your back.

You’re pretty sure you’re ruining his sweater, getting blood and tears on it, but he isn’t saying anything.

Your cuts sting against his sweater, but you don’t care. He’s warm, and you feel alive.

~~~~~

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and you’ve got a bleeding and almost naked Dave in your arms.

He stopped crying after a while, and you figure you should probably wrap up his wounds now. Just because he’s a godtier doesn’t mean his wounds can’t get infected and hurt a whole fucking lot.

You attempt to let go of him, but he whimpers, and tugs on your sweater.

“Dave,” You say, in your softest voice, “let me wrap up your… wounds. I brought my bandages,”

He nods, and lets go of your sweater.

You pull out the bandage from your sylladex, and begin to gently wrap his left arm arm.

You notice him staring at your bandaged right hand.

“How’s your hand?” He asks, as you finish wrapping his left arm, pin the bandage in place, and move on to the right one.

“It’s doing pretty well,” you reply.

He hums in response.

You finish wrapping his right arm in silence, only speaking after you finish pinning the bandage in place.

“Do you want me to do your legs next or your torso next? Or do you just want me to wrap your torso and you wrap your legs?” Some of the cuts on his legs are… rather close to his buldge/nook region. You know Dave has a what is essentially a stiff buldge called a “dick” there, and you don’t want to make things awkward.

He raises his arms in the air carefully. “Torso first,” He replies.

As you wrap his torso, one question keeps bugging you.

Why?

Why did he do this to himself?

You decide to ask once he’s all bandaged up. 

When you pin the bandage on his torso in place, he turns his body to face the wall, lies down, and puts his left foot up against the wall.

“There, you can wrap it now,” He tells you, his voice cracking.

You decide to start at the part closest to his dick, just to get that part done and over with.

Just before you start wrapping, Dave speaks up.

“If you don’t want to, you, uh, you don’t have to. I mean I’m a godtier, it’ll heal,” He says.

You start wrapping. “Dave, I doubt you’ve ever had this many cuts of this magnitude on your body, ever. It could take weeks to heal, even with your godtier,” You reply.

He’s silent for a moment, before speaking again,“Sorry for ruining your sweater,” 

“It’s fine,” You assure him, “I’ve got, like, 20 others just like it,”

You look at his face, and give him a soft smile. He smiles back.

You you pin the bandage around his left leg, and he puts it down on the ground, and puts his right foot up on the wall.

You do the same wrapping method to his right leg as you did his left.

While you’re wrapping his leg, he takes off his shades and looks at them.

“I’m glad John gave me these shades,” He tells you, “otherwise, I’d be stuck wearing the same shitty pair as Bro,”

You hum in response, and he puts his shades back on his face.

You finish wrapping his leg, and pin the bandage in place.

He tries to stand up, but ultimately fails and falls over.

“Fuuuuuuck,” He says as his back hits the bloody floor.

When he tries to get up again, you’re helping him. 

He’s got his right arm around your shoulder, and you’ve got your left arm around his torso, as the two of you slowly walk over to his bed to sit on it.

Sitting on the bed, you look at your bloody sweater.

You should probably take it off, it’s gross.

So, you take off your sweater and throw it on the ground.

You look at Dave, who is fidgeting his hands in his lap, and looking forward at the wall.

“Dave,” You start, and he looks at you, “why did you do this?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment, they motivate me to write more!


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which love is found

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HERE Y’ALL GO!!! Sorry it took so long :( I just really wanted this chapter to be perfect!!! And there were sooooooooo many things I could do!!!!!! Hope y’all like it!
> 
> Not officially proofread (I only reread it like, 20 times lol)

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and Karkat has just asked you why you cut yourself.

You don’t know what to say.

Do you tell him it’s because you’re afraid he would read the rap you wrote about him, and would hate you?

What if he hasn’t actually read it?

What if he dropped it down a vent, and it got destroyed?

What if he has read it, and hates you?

He said he doesn’t like you, but Rose told you trolls only chirp in front of their matesprit, and he did say yes when Bro asked if he was your boyfriend…

Not to mention the fact that he is here, right now, next to you, shirtless.

“It’s nothing,” You end up saying. It’s total bullshit, and he knows that, but you don’t know what to say.

“Dave,” He replies, sounding very concerned, “look at yourself. Whatever made you do this is not ‘nothing’, it’s definitely something, and, dammit I want to help you!”

You look into his eyes, and see that tears are starting to form in his eyes.

You take off your shades, and place them next to you on the bed, looking at Karkat the entire time.

“You know how, I’d always say ‘I’m not gay’ n’shit?” You say.

He nods.

“Well, that was a fucking lie,” You pause, and take a deep breath, “and I guess, I’ve been getting some feelings for someone who doesn’t like me back,” Your pulse quickens, as does your breathing. You have to look away from Karkat. 

You feel him rubbing circles on your back. It’s a fucking moral alliance thing, but dammit you wish it were the love one too.

Tears well up in your eyes, and you let them fall. It’s probably obvious you like him, and he’s trying to keep your moral alliance intact.

“Who is it?” Karkat asks. You can’t bring yourself to answer. It’s so fucking obvious.

“Doesn’t matter,” You lie. Yes it fucking does. “Point is, I’m gay, and Striders aren’t gay,” 

“You are literally the only Strider in existence. And the doomed ones don’t count,” He says, “I think you get to decide for yourself what a Strider is,”

You shake your head, “There’s a version of my Bro in the new session. He’s a Strider, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s just like the Bro I grew up with,”

“If he’s anything like that nookstain I will personally feed him to the horrorterrors,” He deadpans.

You smile at him, and he smiles at you. 

Goddamn he has a beautiful smile. With his pointy teeth, the red specs in his eyes, his untamed hair, his cute nubby horns, his everything.

You could totally kiss him right now.

Instead, you let out a sigh and look at the ground.

“It still feels wrong to like another guy that way,” You say.

“I think I know the feeling,” He replies.

What.

“What do you mean?” You ask, and look at him. Does he like you? Is that possible?

“I mean, the quadrants, they are the absolute best, keeps everything in line, and everything makes sense,” He pauses, and continues when you don’t answer. “But I can’t actually separate my feelings into quadrants, and it is really fucking exhausting to want scream at someone, help them, and kiss them all at the same time!” 

He lets out a sigh and falls onto his back on your bed, and you try and process what he just said.

Neither of you actually have quadrants, yet you two are in one. What the fuck. Does he like you?

“If you don’t do quadrants, then, why’d you ask to be in one?” You ask, as you lay down next to him.

~~~~~

You’re name is Karkat Vantas, and you are about to confess to Dave.

You know he likes a guy, and with the only other two guys on the meteor being Gamzee and the mayor, you’re pretty confident he likes you. Not to mention what he wrote about you.

You take a deep breath, and look at his face.

He’s taken his shades off, and you can see his angelic eyelashes, his candy red eyes, and you can’t help but think how perfect he is.

“Because,” You start, “I’m horns over heels for you in all the quadrants, and figured you’d be least likely to reject me as a moirail,”

You just did that. 

His face is in shock, and he turns his head to face you properly.

You can see his face blushing pink, and you really want to kiss him.

He tries to say something, but nothing comes out of his mouth.

You turn the rest of your body to face him, and place your left hand on his cheek.

Your face is burning up from blush at the thought of what your question is going to be.

“Can I kiss you?” You ask.

His eyes widen. “Y-yeah,” He replies.

You lean in, and kiss him.

It’s short, a little sloppy, and nothing like in your romance novels. But damn it felt nice.

As you pull away, you realize that it must’ve been awkward to kiss you because your overbite makes your front teeth always stick out.

You’re about to start telling yourself how awful you are for not thinking about that in advance, when Dave leans in and kisses you again.

This time the kiss is more passionate and lasts longer. The way his lips feel against yours is incredible, and you wish you could stay like this forever.

You love him so much. Hell, you were even starting to chirp and purr.

And then his stomach makes that god awful noise. Didn’t he eat?

You pull out of the kiss, and look him in the eyes.

“Dave, did you eat?” You ask him.

He looks away, and mumbles, “No,”

“Dave,” You say in a pained voice.

You give him a quick peck on the lips, then get up and go over to where had gotten food from last time.

It doesn’t look too healthy, but what do you know about human health?

You grab 5 bags, and go back to Dave’s bed. 

~~~~~

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and you just kissed Karkat, holy shit.

It was… incredible. Nothing like you could imagine.

His lips were dry, but that didn’t bother you. After all, they fit perfectly against yours.

You had thought the kiss might’ve been awkward, since he had sharp teeth pointing out of his mouth, but it wasn’t. Hell, his teeth were perfect.

Everything about the kiss, was perfect. 

And then your fucking stomach had to give away the fact that you hadn’t actually eaten.

Karkat had gone to grab some food from your food stash, since you could barely walk, and came back with 5 bags of doritos in hand.

When he sat down on the bed, you sat up.

The light was beginning to hurt your eyes, so you grabbed your shades and put them on.

He put the bags of doritos in between you two, and pulled out a bottle of water from his sylladex.

“Here,” He said, handing the bottle to you. You take it, and open a bag of doritos.

“Want one?” You ask Karkat, handing him a chip.

He takes the chip, and looks at it. “Is this even healthy?” He questions.

“Well,” You start, “considering it was, like, 95% of my diet back on earth, probably not,”

He looks at you with horrified eyes. “Then why do you keep eating them?” He exclaims. “I know Rose has alchemized plenty of other human foods, so you can’t say it’s because there’s nothing else,”

You shrug. “I dunno. I’m just used to it,” You say, as you shove a chip in your mouth, “Plus I’m godtier, so I doubt it’ll kill me,”

He looks at you, then at the chip in his hand. He sniffs the chip, and then takes a small bite off the corner. You watch him chew it, and swallow. 

And when he takes another, bigger bite, you smile.

“It’s good, right?” You say.

“Surprisingly, yes,” He replies, “but if I find pieces of it in my teeth for the next week, I’m blaming you,”

“Fair enough,” You agree, as you eat another chip.

He shoves the rest of the chip in his mouth, and then looked at you.

“By the way,” He started, in a soft voice, “I, uh, I read what you wrote about me,”

And for some reason, despite the fact that the two of you had kissed, you were still nervous as to what he was going to say. You had to look away.

Probably because you were nervous that he just didn’t like your writing.

“What did you think of it?” You ask him. Oh god he probably hated it, probably thought it was weird, oh god.

“I’m going to be honest,” He answers as he puts a hand on your back. He’s going to say it was weird or something, isn’t he, “it was my favourite one,”

Oh. He did like it. Well, you weren’t expecting that.

“Really?” You ask as you turn your head to look at him, just to be sure.

He smiles at you, “Of course,” he says.

You smile back, and feel tears of joy welling up in your eyes. You give him a quick kiss on the lips.

“I love you,” You tell him.

“I love you too,” He replies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> K so the plan *was* to leave it here, they love each other, it’s all good...  
> ...but dammit I need to continue this. I got ideas for another chapter, for quite a few more chapters actually! I even have ideas for their life on Earth C!
> 
> Soooooo, leave comment, they motivate me to write more!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which reassurance is required

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow fuck, sorry this took so long :/
> 
> School n’shit, y’know?
> 
> Also that extended zodiac test, totally took that 100 times. I’m a canpia (lime blood + derse dreamer + light bound)
> 
> All that time, and this shit still ain’t proofread.

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and you are torn between going to get Dave some actual fucking food, and staying here with him.

You come to the realization that the shit ton of blood that Dave bled is still on the floor, and should probably be cleaned up soon.

So, you’re going to have to leave.

You give him a quick kiss before speaking.

“I am going to go, and get you some real fucking food, and some stuff to clean up,” you look at the blood on the floor, “that. Ok?” You say.

When he doesn’t answer, you wrap him in a hug.

“You need some actual food, and your floor really needs to be cleaned. It shouldn’t take me too long to get back,” You assure him.

It takes him a moment to respond.

“Don’t take too long,” He pleads. Oh god he fucking pleaded.

You move your hands to cup his face, and press your forehead against his.

“I’ll be back before you know it,” You say.

“Okay,” He replies.

You give him a quick kiss before you get up off his bed, and just as you’re about to leave his room, you say one last thing.

“Love you,” You tell him, and then you leave.

You run through the halls to your respiteblock for two reasons. The first is because you don’t want to leave Dave alone for too long, and second is that you’re shirtless, and aren’t sure what you would say to anyone who asked you why.

Luckily, you make it to your respiteblock without encountering anyone.

You put on a sweater, and notice you also have blood on your pants. So, you put on a fresh pair of those as well.

Your computer is blinking, telling you that someone tried to contact you.

grimAuxiliatrix [ GA ] began trolling carcinoGeneticist [ CG ]

GA: Hello Karkat.  
GA: How Are Things With Dave?  
GA: After What I Saw At The Meeting, I Presume It Is Not Stretch To Believe You Two Are At Least On Good Terms.

carcinoGeneticist [ CG ] is now an idle troll!

GA: Well, Dont Hesitate to Respond When You Get Back.  
GA: Also, Vriska Wanted Me To Warn You Of Encountering Gamzee.  
GA: She Saw Him Talking To A dead Version Of Himself In A Dream Bubble, And They Were Watching And Pointing At Different Dead Versions Of You.  
GA: Anyway,  
GA: Talk To You Soon.

grimAuxiliatrix [ GA ] ceased trolling carcinoGeneticist [ GA ]

You considered responding, but decided against it, since you could get caught up in conversation, and you need to be as fast as possible.

So, you search your room for a large enough bowl to hold the water you would use to clean Dave’s floor.

The first thing of an appropriate size that you find is a bucket, but there is no way you are going to have a bucket in the same room as you and Dave. The thought alone makes your whole face blush.

Luckily, it doesn’t take you too long to find a bowl, and you head to the ablution block to fill it with water, and grab a few towels.

You head over to the common room, where there is surprisingly no one. Makes things easier for you, at least.

You look at the list of codes for different human foods that Rose had made, and decide on the pumpkin muffins. The majority of the human food has pumpkins.

You alchemize the muffins, and some grub loaf for yourself. You’ve memorized the grub loaf code.

On your walk back to Dave’s respiteblock, you narrowly avoided an encounter with Vriska and Terezi. 

“Where the fuck is he?” Vriska complained.

“We should have done this back when he was still obsessed with me,” Terezi retorted.

You don’t bother to listen to the rest of the conversation once they pass the corridor you hid in.

Finally making it back to Dave’s respiteblock, with all necessary items in your sylladex, you did not expect to find curled up on his bed, crying.

~~~~~

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and as Karkat walks out your door, you have a strange clash of emotions. 

One part of you is all giddy and happy that Karkat said he loves you, and now you two have actually kissed.

The other part of you is convinced he was lying, and now that he’s gone, he’s never coming back.

Fortunately, it doesn’t take long for something to distract your mind from those thoughts. Unfortunately, that something happens to be your blood on the floor.

It’s a metric-fuck-ton of blood, and it reminds you of the really bad strifes with Bro.

The ones where you’d had trouble sleeping the night before, and couldn’t block properly.

The ones that happened only hours after another one.

The ones that lasted far longer than the usual 4 hours.

The ones where you’d do something he deemed “gay”, and he tried to cleanse you of it.

The ones that you thought were just you being weak.

You curl up in a ball, and try not to cry. 

You just want Karkat. You want him here. You want him to hold you, and tell you it’s alright.

The smell of your blood is starting to get to you.

You feel the tears welling up in your eyes, and try your hardest not to let them fall. 

But of course, you fail, and the tears roll down your face. You’re sobbing.

If Bro saw you now…

You hear loud footsteps outside your door, and you know it’s Karkat.

When he opens the door, you’re body doesn’t let you do anything but stare at him.

“Dave,” He says with a pained voice.

Now look at what you’ve done. You’ve made him worry. Striders don’t need help, Striders don’t cry, Striders-

Your thoughts are interrupted by Karkat shoosh papping you.

“I’m sorry,” You whimper, “fuck, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t, I shouldn’t,”

“Dave, shoooooosh, It’s okay,” Karkat’s voice is soft, and the contact is reassuring.

“He’s here, oh god, fuck, he’s here, he’s gonna, fuck. He’s here, he gonna hurt you, oh fuck no, he’s here,” You were hyperventilating now. Your body was convinced Bro was here, even though you knew he was dead.

“It’s just you and me, shooooooooosh. It’s just you and me, in a laboratory on a meteor hurtling through a place where space and time don’t function normally,” He tells you. Those words would terrify a normal person, but to you they were reassurance that Bro couldn’t hurt you or Karkat.

You rest your head on his shoulder, and carefully wrap your arms around him. You’ve still got bandages on your arms, and you don’t want to tear them.

He puts his arms around you, and carefully rubs your back with his left hand, calming you down significantly.

“Thank you,” You manage to say, despite an extremely shaky voice.

Karkat pulls out of the hug, and rests his forehead on yours. His left hand cups your face.

“Better?” He asks, giving you a soft smile.

You smile back, and nod in response. He then gives you soft, quick kiss on the lips.

When he pulls away from the kiss, he takes a plate of muffins from his sylladex, and hands it to you.

“Here,” He says, “I got you real food, so you don’t have to eat those shitty triangular-crunches,”

You look at the muffins, then back at Karkat, and then speak.

“Those are pumpkin muffins, aren’t they?” 

“Yeah?” He answers, confused as to why you’re asking.

“Rose better start making new fruits,” You say, “I’m getting sick of pumpkin,”

He rolls his eyes at you.

“Says the one who admitted to eating triangular-crunches his entire life,” He retorts, as he gets up and grabs the five bags of doritos from your bed, and puts them on your desk.

“Aw dude, doritos are different. I’ve been eating those since the day I was born. Er, landed? I dunno. They were breakfast everyday, when breakfast was a normal thing for me, at least,” God fuck you just admitted to not eating breakfast every morning. Fuck fuck continue, make him forget that fact, “Pumpkins, man, I’ve only been eating those for the last 7 months we’ve been on this rock. I’m not a accustomed to the taste, but it’s not a fresh taste anymore, you know?”

Karkat just stares at you in awe of your word vomit for a moment.

“Would you prefer to try Alternian food instead?” He asks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment, they motivate me to write more!
> 
> Also, I made Karkat call doritos “triangular-crunches” should I change it to something else? Idk how I feel about it.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which not much happens honestly:/
> 
> Sorry
> 
> Next chapter will be more interesting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hnnnnnnnnnnng
> 
> So turns out writers block + really bad mental state (I mean staring at a wall for 4 hours and contemplating existence) + dysphoria = not much story at all
> 
> Who woulda known?

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and you have just offered Dave Alternian food. He’s always been so repulsed by the fact that it has bugs in it, so you don’t expect him to want to try it.

“Have you got any with you?” He asks. Holy shit, does he actually want to try it?

“Uh, yeah I got grubloaf,” You reply, taking the plate of grubloaf out of your sylladex.

He stares it down for a moment, before speaking.

“Fuck it, pass it here,” He tells you, holding out his hand to take the plate.

You hand him the plate.

He glares at the grubloaf, and for a moment you think that’s all he’s going to do. Luckily, he breaks off a piece with his hand, and eats it.

“What the fuck,” He says, mouth still full.

You are very confused, and Dave must have noticed this, as he elaborated.

“This actually tastes, good?” He pauses to swallow it, “Like, it’s weird, and I honest to god cannot describe how it tastes, but, yeah. It’s good,” He breaks off another piece to eat.

Wow, Dave Strider is enjoying Alternian food?

“Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying it,” You start, “Now I’m going to clean up this fucking mess on your floor,” you stare at the candy red blood on the floor, and it begins to make you slightly nauseous. It’s the same shade of red as yours, and honestly you don’t want to wait until after it’s dry.

“You don’t have to, I can do it,” Dave says before you pull out the bowl of water from your sylladex.

“You’re wounds are pretty fucking bad, you should be resting,” You tell him as you finally take the water bowl out of your sylladex.

“Still, it’s my mess, I’ll clean it up,” He protested as he set the plate of grubloaf down beside him, “I didn’t clean up your room, you don’t need to clean mine,” 

“My room only had glass and a bit of blood,” You reply, “yours, well, it’s a lot fucking worse than mine,”

You set the tin bowl down on the metal floor, making a clang, and hear Dave make a whimper-like noise.

You look at him, and see that he’s begun to curl back up into a ball.

“You ok?” You ask, very worried.

“Yeah, just, shit man, that sound was not a pleasant one,” he says, uncurling from his ball, “It was like, the sound happened, and my body was all ‘oh shit we’re gonna die, better curl up in a fucking ball like a whimp, better make yourself as small as fucking possible’ but that’s a stupid thing to do. At noises like that, I should be taking out my sword, not being a whimp-”

“Dave,” You interrupt his ramble, “are you ok?”

He takes a deep breath.

“Yeah,” He says and nods, “yeah I’m good,” 

He picks back up the plate of grubloaf, and you start cleaning the floor with the towels you had put in your sylladex.

~

It takes some time to clean the floor. Some of the blood did dry, and Dave’s desk chair has been stained. However, time seemed to pass faster than it did, as you and Dave made casual conversation.

You’re probably going to have to throw out all but one of the towels you grabbed.

Sitting down on the bed next to Dave, you notice that he’s finished the grubloaf, and is poking one of the pumpkin muffins.

“If you’re not gonna eat it, I am,” You say. You had grabbed the grubloaf for yourself, but that’s now long gone, and you’re getting hungry.

He looks at you.

“You sure you wanna eat this pumpkin shit?” He asks.

“It can’t be that bad,” You reply as you take one of the muffins.

You bite into the muffin, and honestly it tastes quite good. Not the best, quite dry, but still pretty good.

~~~~~

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and you can hardly believe that Karkat is willingly eating human food.

“Enjoying the shitty muffin?” You ask.

“It’s not shitty,” he replies “but it is dry as fuck, pass me the water bottle,”

“This?” You say, holding up the water bottle he had given you, “Nah dude, you don’t want this. It’s covered in Strider mouth cooties, you don’t want those,”

Karkat gives you a look of utter disbelief and annoyance, before pressing his lips against yours.

“I disagree,” He says as he pulls out of the kiss.

“Holy shit that was smooth as fuck,” You reply.

He grabs the water bottle out of your hand.

“Yes, yes it was,” He says as he takes a drink from the water bottle, and moves the plate of pumpkin muffins from your lap onto the bed next to him. 

“So you’ve been taking notes from the king of smoothness himself?” You smirk at him.

“King of smoothness? Who the fuck is that?” He retorts.

“Why, me of course,” You shoot finger guns, he looks at you with a blank expression.

That blank expression doesn’t last long, as eventually he bursts out laughing.

“What? It’s true,” You insist, “I’m so smooth, when anyone goes to grab me they’re gonna slide right off into the depths of paradox space. Hell, I’m gonna slide right off this meteor with all this smoothness, slide into bec noir and white bec noir and make ‘em go off course. When Rose asks where I am, you’ll have to tell her that I was too smooth to stay on the meteor,”

By the time you’re done your little word vomit, Karkat is laughing so hard, he’s started to cough.

“Holy shit Strider,” He says in between laughs and coughs, “you never fucking stop, do you?”

“Nope,” You reply, and kiss him on the forehead,

“Good,” He tells you, and then takes another bite of the muffin, “so are you going to get dressed at some point or what?”

Oh yeah. You’re really only in boxers. Bandages don’t count as clothes.

“Yeah, yeah, I should probably get dressed,” You say.

~

Getting dressed was not as easy as it normally was. You had limited mobility due to the bandages, so you actually ended up needing Karkat’s help to get dressed.

You’re really glad your godtier outfit has long sleeves, since you’ve no idea how long you’ll need to have the bandages on, and you don’t want to explain to everyone why you’ve got gray bandages on.

Just as you’re about to sit back down on your bed, your computer chimes.

You go over to your computer, and don’t sit down in the blood soaked chair. Typing and standing is not your preferred method of doing things, but you know better than to sit in blood.

gallowsCalibrator [ GC ] began trolling turntechGodhead [ TG ]

GC: D4V3  
GC: D4V3  
GC: H4V3 YOU S33N G4MZ33?  
TG: i havent seen that dude since this meteor shit show started  
TG: why  
GC: B3C4US3  
GC: VR1SK4 4ND 1 R3C3NTLY SPOK3 TO 4 DOOM3D T1M3LIN3 WH3R3 G4MZ33 W3NT ON 4NOTH3R K1LL1NG SPR33  
GC: 1F W3 DONT F1ND H1M SOON W3 4R3 PROB4BLY 4LL GO1NG TO D13  
TG: oh shit  
TG: well  
TG: ill let you know if i see him  
GC: 4CTU4LLY  
GC: VR1SK4 S4YS 3V3RYON3 SHOULD B3 LOOK1NG FOR H1M  
TG: why isnt vriska telling me this  
GC: B3C4US3 SH3 1S TRY1NG TO CONT4CT K4RK4T  
TG: oh karkats here with me  
TG: well look for clown guy dont worry  
GC: W3 B3L1V3 G4MZ33 M1GHT 4CTU4LLY B3 LOOK1NG FOR K4RK4T  
TG: really  
TG: all right then  
TG: makes our job a shit ton easier  
GC: OR A SH1T TON MOR3 D34DLY  
GC: NOW GO B3FOR3 W3 *4LL* D13

gallowsCalibrator [ GC ] ceased trolling turntechGodhead [ TG ]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment, they motivate me to write more!
> 
> (Honestly without the comments on the previous chapter, I’m not too sure this chapter would exist)


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is a clown hunt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no excuses for this taking so long.
> 
> My mental health has been on a steady decline, but this fic is actually good for me. I like writing it. It makes me happy :)

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and dear gog you are tired of looking for Gamzee. Dave is floating just above you, and while normally you’d have given him shit over shoving is god tier powers in your face, his legs had given out a while back due to his… injuries.

Dave had his iShades ready, and you had your palmhusk out, but you really beginning to doubt you’d ever find Gamzee. 

“How long have we been at this?” You ask, as Dave looks into a vent in the ceiling.

“Maybe, 3 hours? Yeah, that sounds right,” He replies, before shouting into the vent, “Yo! Clown troll! Honk honk, fucker,”

No response, so you move along.

It was at that point you realize, you don’t actually have any idea where you are. This makes you come to an abrupt stop.

Dave notices you stop, and looks at you.

“Y’alright?” He asks.

“Do you know where we are?” Answering a question with a question is not usually the best thing to do, but you really don’t want to get lost knowing Gamzee is supposed to go on another murder spree.

Dave opened his mouth to speak, looked around, then closed his mouth. You figure he must not know where you are either.

“Fuck,” You say as you run a hand through your hair, “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fucking fuck! We’re lost! We’re fucking lost! God, fuck, I’m an idiot!”

“Woah, hey now,” Dave starts as he rests his hands on your shoulders, “you can be mad that we’re lost, but I’ve been picking the direction for what, the past hour and a half? It’s not your fault we’re lost,”

“I know, fuck, just,” You take a deep breath, “It’s just what I say sometimes. Usually I just say it in my head, but this time it was out loud I guess,”

Dave leaned forward and kissed your forehead, and then your nose, and then finally on your lips.

“You’re not an idiot,” He tells you as he pulls out of the kiss.

“Whether or not I’m an idiot is irrelevant so long as we’re lost, and in danger of being killed by a murderous Gamzee,” You say.

“Alright, alright,” He replies, raising his hands in mocking defense, “let’s go, get unlost. Retrace our steps or some shit. That’s what they do in movies, right?”

~

“No, we need to go left!” You shout.

“I’m pretty sure we need to go right,” Dave counters.

“When we came to this intersection, we turned right, which means we now need to go left! I’m sure of it!” You and Dave had been attempting to retrace your steps to try and had come to a fork in the road where you cannot for the life of either of you agree which direction to go.

“Alright we’ll go left,” Dave says, finally giving. You smile in triumph, since it’s not often you can beat Dave during your banter.

~~~~~

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and you really love the look of triumph on Karkat’s face. He looks so happy that he beat you in your banter.

Truth be told, you’re pretty sure you took a wrong turn awhile back, so who knows which direction was better to take.

You look at Karkat’s hair, the wild mess that it is, and mentally debate running your hand through it.

It could be awkward, just randomly putting your hand on his head. But you two aren’t even talking anymore, and probably won’t until the next intersection. There just isn’t much to talk about.

His hair is also feels really nice (though you still can’t place what it feels like), but you don’t actually know if he likes you touching his hair.

Oh fuck it.

You put your right hand on his head and play with the hair strands between your fingers.

“What are you doing?” Karkat asks, and you immediately pull back your hand. His tone was entirely confused, so you had no real idea if he liked what you were doing or not.

“Your hair feels, uh, really cool, um, yeah,” Gog dammit you shouldn’t be stammering, it makes it sound like you’re lying, “It’s like… auuugh there’s nothing really like it, I just really like the way your hair feels. B-but if you don’t like me touching it I won’t,”

“Uh, you can keep touching it if you want, i-it’s nice,” He says, and you see him blush as he turns to face away from you, “I just thought it would feel weird to you, or something,”

“Nah, your hair’s cool,” You tell him as you put your right hand back in his hair.

Karkat turns his head to look at you, and when you see his beautiful smile, you can’t help but kiss him. He stops walking as he kisses you back, his hands on your back, and your left hand now on his neck.

You pull gently on his hair, and he gasps. You use this moment to let your tongue in his mouth, and he moans in delight. Gog, he is perfect. 

It’s when he lets out a chirp, followed by purring and a few more chirps, that he breaks away from the kiss for more than just a breath of air. You’re slightly disappointed, but you’re not going to make him do anything he doesn’t want to.

“Fuckass, we’re still lost. Quit getting us distracted,” Karkat says, out of breathing and without any real anger in his words.

“Sorry, you’re just too distractingly beautiful,” Wait fuck you said that out loud. Don’t worry, you complimented him, it’s fine, right? Fuck, should you take it back?

The blush on his face tells you that no, you shouldn’t take it back.

~~~~~

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and kissing Dave is probably one of your top 10 favourite things to do, however, not getting killed by Gamzee still has it beat.

And, fuck, he called you beautiful. How do you react to that?

“Shut up,” Apparently is going to be your response, as you continue down the hallway.

“What? It’s true,” Dave says, and you notice he still has his hand in your hair. The feeling of his hand in your hair is actually really nice.

“Whatever,” You find it hard to believe that Dave actually thinks you’re beautiful.

“Dude, if you’re not going to believe me, I’m just gonna have to constantly remind you, gorgeous,” Dave emphasized gorgeous, and you could definitely feel the blush in your cheeks was even stronger than before. Sweeps of learning how to not blush have been all for nothing.

“What did I say about about distracting us?” You say, but there’s no anger in your words.

“Hey man, we’re still walkin’. I’m just making this long-ass walk more enjoyable. Seriously though, who makes corridors this long without any turns or doors? Shit’s crazy,” He says.

You’re about to answer, when you step on a horn that lets out a very loud honk.

You both freeze. 

Behind you, you hear very quiet, almost inaudible, honk. And then another one, a little louder.

You both turn around, and see Gamzee slowly approaching. He’s got a club in one hand, and a horn in the other.

Dave picks you up, and flies down further down the hallway. You hope he doesn’t hurt himself.

He turn a corner, and you find yourselves in a large room. The only other exit is blocked by metal crates. Those things are impossible to move.

You’re trapped, and you have no idea where you are.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment, they motivate me to write more!


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Karkat bleeds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY THIS TOOK FOREVER 
> 
> I really have no excuses, I just didn’t write this fic. Hhhhhhh imsorry

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and you are thoroughly fucked. You and Karkat are going to die. Fuck.

You’re still holding Karkat, and it’s starting to sting your arms, but you don’t let go. 

You feel him starting to shake.

“I’m gonna die,” He says, voice full of fear. He starts to cry.

“Fuck,” You reply, “fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!” 

You try to not cry.

You fail to not cry.

“Maybe,” You start, “maybe I can fight him. I can totally beat a juggalo, yeah,”

“No,” He says as he gets squirms out of your hold and lands on the floor, “you can’t fight Gamzee! I know you’re stupid, but that’s completely insane!”

“Well I’m not just gonna let him come in here and kill us!” You exclaim, “I’m gonna put up a fight, a damn good one too, and he-”

“No!” Karkat interrupts you, “The only way for at least one of us to survive is to just let him come in here and kill us! I’m going to die, and you aren’t going to piss him off, or do anything heroic so when you die, you at least get to come back! I don’t have any significance, so me dying won’t change shit! As a matter of fact, me dying might actually be a necessity of the timeline, wouldn’t that-”

“I’m not gonna let you die!” You shout. Damn that was almost a scream, “Fuck, man, do you have any idea how much everyone needs you? How much I need you?” 

You’re both sobbing.

You float down to the ground, and are very glad when your legs don’t collapse under you. Karkat hugs you, and buries his face in your chest. You hug him back, your face in his hair.

“You can’t beat him,” He says quietly, like he doesn’t want you to hear.

“I can try,” Is all you can say.

...

“HONK” Comes from the hallway. Murder clown’s here.

You rub circles on Karkat’s back, and try to think of how you’ll beat Gamzee. Your mobility is severely decreased due to the bandages, so you’re going to have to get creative.

Well, Gamzee isn’t Godtier. He can’t fly. Might as well use that to your advantage.  
Actually… yeah. Yeah you might actually have a plan. Hopefully it’ll work.

You see him walk into the room from the hallway. He’s got a sinister look on his face, and clubs in his hands.

“Karbro, I just wanted a motherfuckin chat is all,” God you hate Gamzee’s voice.

Reluctantly, Karkat steps away from you and approaches Gamzee.

“What,” Karkat says, his voice filled with venom. Still, you can hear the fear behind it.

“We’re supposed to be motherfuckin moirails, you know,” Gamzee shouts, “Instead, you run off with that motherfucker, an’ leave me to suffer in the motherfuckin vents,” He pauses, and when no one else speaks, he continues, “You need me, I care about you. The whole motherfuckin reason half our motherfuckin team is dead is because of you! You need some motherfucker like me to get your motherfuckin think-pan right,”

Yeah okay Gamzee’s done enough talking.

“Hey shut the fuck up,” You shout.

Both Karkat and Gamzee look at you, and you see that tears have begun to form in Karkat’s eyes. Oh Gamzee is so dead.

“What motherfuckin right do you have to say anything,” Gamzee says to you.

“Look, I don’t know much about troll culture, but telling someone that they fucked up and that to not fuck up they need you, that’s what Rose would call an abusive relationship. And believe me, she knows how to label these things,” You tell him, “so maybe you should shut the fuck up, if you do care about Karkat as much as you claim to,”

Gamzee walks up towards you, and you tense. He’s at least a foot taller than you, and he’s slouching.

God, you hope your legs don’t stop working anytime soon.

“Don't tell me what to motherfuckin do!” Gamzee shouts

And then he hits you.

~~~~~

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and holy shit, Gamzee just hit Dave with a club in the face. You no longer give a shit about what happens to you, Dave doesn’t need to be hurt anymore than he is.

“Don’t fucking touch him, Gamzee,” You screech. 

“What, has this motherfuckin useless alien motherfucker really who you had replace me,” Gamzee growls.

“No, he didn’t replace you,” You pause, and see Dave look at you with what you can only describe and betrayal, “No one could replace you, because there’s nothing to replace, nookwipe! Unless if someone else wants to crawl through the vents and honk ominously, you’re never going to be replaced! I don’t know what you thought we had, but we didn’t fucking have it. Maybe in another timeline, but it would be doomed for a reason,”

Gamzee is officially enraged, but at least Dave is no longer looking betrayed. He’s actually smiling.

“Motherfucker!” Gamzee shouts, and turns to kick Dave.

Dave almost crashes into the stack of metal crates blocking the door, but uses his godtier flying abilities just in time.

“Damn, at least I got awesome godtier powers to save me. I’d be deader than your connection to Karkat otherwise,” he says.

Holy shit. Dave is an idiot who is going to get himself killed.

“You don’t know shit about my motherfuckin ‘connection’ to Karkat,” Gamzee replies, as he tries to hit Dave with a club.

Luckily, Dave manages to dodge the club, and it instead dents the metal crates. Unfortunately, Gamzee still manages to grab Dave’s cape.

“Shit!” Dave says as he tries to get out of Gamzee’s hold.

“You little motherfucker,” Gamzee starts, “you think you can just motherfuckin come here and take over the whole motherfuckin place? Well do I have some motherfuckin news for you, it ain’t motherfu-” He’s cut off by a loud knocking on the other side of the locked door.

You all stare at the door in silence.

Another rapid series of knocks, and then what sounds like a can hits the door.

Is cantown on the other side of that door? You know there was a jammed door there…

“What the motherfuckin hell?” Gamzee asks as he turns back to look at Dave, “Did you motherfuckin set this up?”

You drown out the rest of the conversation and text Terezi.

carcinoGeneticist [ CG ] began trolling gallowsCalibrator [ GC ]

CG: TEREZI!  
CG: WE FOUND GAMZEE.  
GC: GR34T  
GC: WH3R3 4R3 YOU?  
CG: YOU KNOW THE JAMMED DOOR IN CANTOWN?  
CG: WE FOUND OUR WAY TO THE OTHER SIDE.  
GC: VR1SK4 4ND I 4R3 ON OUR W4Y

carcinoGeneticist [ CG ] ceased pestering gallowsCalibrator [ GC ]

When you look back up, Gamzee is trying to hit Dave with a club again, but Dave manages to slice it in half, much to your relief.

“Dude, seriously,” Dave says, a little out of breath, “just give up. You aren’t gaining anything by beating me up.”

Gamzee punches Dave in the gut, and he doubles over, falling onto the floor.

“Dave!” You cry out, and run to him. Unfortunately, Gamzee grabs you before you can reach Dave.

“Shhhhh karbro, you’re mine, motherfucker! And I ain’t never letting you go,” Gamzee growled into your ear, as he started to pap your face, and squish you into his body.

“Let me go, you fuck!” You screech, trying to worm your way out.

“Stop moving!” Gamzee bellowed, and digs his claws into your sides. You know you’re bleeding, and fuck does it hurt.

You scream, and you don’t stop screaming.

Not when Dave finally gets up.

Not when Gamzee yells at you to shut up.

Not even when Dave tries, and fails, to break you out of Gamzee’s hold.

And when Terezi and Vriska show up, you’re still screaming.

When Gamzee tries to run away with you, you scream louder, and thrash in his hold.

In retaliation, he digs his claws further into your sides.

Eventually, Terezi, Vriska, and Dave manage to get Gamzee off of you. Only then do you stop screaming.

Everything seems far away, and yet right in your face. You can hardly register what you’re hearing, but you know there’s yelling. All you can focus on is the bright mutant candy red blood seeping out of your sides.

Dave is standing in front of you. He’s saying something, you can see his lips moving, but you can’t hear him.

You press yourself against him, mindful of the bandages underneath, and grab his shirt. You just want to know that you’re here with Dave, an alien with the same blood as you, that you’re on a meteor in space and not on Alternia where the imperial drones would cull you for your blood.

You feel him gently put one arm around you, and then the other. It’s nice, being held by Dave.

His grip tightens, and your feet are lifted up off the floor. He’s carrying you. You don’t know where he’s taking you, but you trust him.

~

He takes you to his block, and sets you down on his concupiscent platform. You don’t let go of him.

He uses his hand to gently move your head so you’re looking at his face, and not his chest. His lips are moving, but you still can’t hear him.

You try, you really try to hear what he’s saying, but it’s hard.

“-rkat, hey, c’mon let go, I need to bandage up your sides,” You finally hear him say.

You don’t want to let go. Your sides hurt like hell, but you don’t want to let go.

“It’ll only be for a little bit, we can go cuddle and watch movies or something after,” He continues.

That… sounds nice.

Reluctantly, you released Dave’s shirt from your grip.

“There we go. Alright, shirt off next,” He tells you.

You slowly and carefully take off your shirt, and once you toss it on the ground, your arms immediately go to cover your bleeding sides.

“Karkat, c’mon man, let go of your sides,” Dave says, “do you still have the bandage roll on you?”

You take one hand of your side and take out the bandage roll, put it in Dave’s lap, and put your hand back over your side.

“Hey, dude, hands are really shitty at covering blood. Bandages though, bandages are fucking awesome at covering blood, and uh, you dying of blood loss would be fucking terrible, so, please let me bandage your wounds,” Dave rambles.

Your ears twitch, listening for drones you know aren’t there because you’re on a fucking meteor, hundreds of thousands of kilometres away from a dead Alternia.

You’re on a meteor.

Far away from a dead Alternia.

Slowly, you move your hands away from your sides, and lift them high enough that Dave can bandage you.

“See? Not too hard,” Dave starts as he bandages you. He continues rambling, but you don’t focus on what he’s saying, and more on the fact that your hands are still covered in blood and you need to wash them as soon as possible.

You try and focus on Dave’s words instead, but it’s hard. It’s hard, and it’s stupid because he’s here and you’re not on Alternia, and no one here gives a shit about your blood colour since they all already know what it is. 

“Hey, Karkat, you’re all wrapped up,” You hear Dave say, “wrapped up like a burrito. How do you feel?”

You bring your hands to the space in between you and him, hoping he understands what’s bothering you.

“Yeah, that should get cleaned off,” Thank god he understood, “Uh, you can wear one of my shirts to the bathroom, here,” He says as he hands you his broken record shirt.

You put the shirt on, careful to do your best to not get any blood on it. It’s too big for you, the neck hole almost falls over your shoulder, but it’s nice.

“C’mon, let’s go,” He says as he puts one arm over your shoulder.

~

When you get to the ablution block, Dave turns on the sink faucet for you, and helps you rub of the blood from your one hand, and change the bandages on the other.

When all the blood is off, you turn off the faucet as Dave kisses your forehead.

“You better?” He asks.

“Yeah,” You reply, resting your head on his chest, “thanks.”

“Thank god you’re talking, I thought you’d screamed the last of your words out or something,” He says with a playful tone.

“Fuck no, how else would I defend my amazing movies everytime you unfairly criticize them?” 

“No idea,” He pauses, “wanna watch a movie?”

You nod.

~

You end up watching a human movie, since they have less blood than troll movies. It’s Good Luck Chuck, since it’s not the worst human movie. You kind of like it.

After the first movie, Dave puts in another. After that one, you put in another. This pattern continues for a while. 

Throughout the entire movie marathon, you and Dave try and debate which movies are worth rewatching and which are worth throwing into Jack Noir’s face. You end up deciding all the movies are good, since you can watch Dave instead if you don’t like the movie.

You end up wrapped in Dave’s cape and pressed up against him at some point. It’s nice. You like being like this.

“Love you,” You say to Dave, as you begin to fall asleep.

“Love you too,” He replies, giving you a kiss on the cheek. You give him a quick kiss on the lips, and rest your head on his shoulder.

This meteor trip isn’t going as horribly as you thought it might.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmmmm yep this fic will have 1 more chapter, and then I’ll start a new fic for the Earth C stuff. I’ll put the two in a series so you guys can find it easily. 
> 
> Also, the next fic will be called “Gone And Back Again”, any ideas what the series name should be called?


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s almost the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HUUUUUUUUGE timeskip I know those are annoying but I wanted to write this!!! It’s 2 days before the arrival at the new session.

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS and you are mildly panicking. 

There’s only two days (or nights or whatever they’re being called) until you reach the new session, and you’re starting to panic.

You’re panicking, and it’s for a variety of reasons.

Pacing in the bathroom (ablution block you tell yourself) you’ve locked yourself in, you go over these reasons.

First of all, you might die. Fuck, Dave might die. If you die, hopefully Dave realizes what a fucking mess you were and quickly becomes glad of your death. But if Dave dies… then fuck. You might as well die too. Yeah, if Dave dies, so will you.

And… what if neither of you die? What will happen in the new universe? Will you and Dave still be together? You’ve been together for the majority of the meteor trip, but he’ll probably realize how awful you are after spending some time with John or Jade.

If, by one of Gamzee’s impossible miracles, Dave doesn’t realize how awful you are, how long will you live for? You’re not godtier, and although you’re supposed to receive the “ultimate reward”, knowing Sgrub, that’s probably just living one more day. Night. Whatever.

And, what if humans and trolls don’t end up in the same place? You’d certainly look for Dave, but would he look for you?

You don’t realize you’re crying until you let out a sob. You bring your hand up to your cheek, and feel the wet trails of the tears.

How fucking pathetic, crying over someone’s right to fuck out of your life if they don’t like you.

There’s a knock on the door.

“Occupied!” You choke out, trying to suppress another sob.

“Well Terezi and Vriska just dashed into the only other bathroom that they haven’t trashed yet, and I don’t really wanna know what they’re doing,” Dave says, “and I really need to take a piss.”

Shit.

It’s Dave.

You rush out of the bathroom and run to your room. Dave doesn’t follow you. 

That’s fine, he did say he needed to take a piss. Maybe he’ll come talk to you after.

Or maybe he’ll want to break things off, either so that if one of you dies the other isn’t devastated, or because he seriously doesn’t like you. Shit, he probably doesn’t like you anymore.

This whole relationship was tied to the meteor, wasn’t it? He didn’t have anything better to do, so he went along with whatever you wanted. Once he’s in the new session, and the new universe, his company won’t be limited to his sister and her girlfriend, his ex crush and her bossy bitch of a moirail, a murderous troll clown in the vents, a mute carapacian who enjoys spending hours alone, and an angry, loud, needy, clingy, annoying, pathetic excuse for a troll.

Really, he just picked the only one who wouldn’t ignore him.

Covering your face with your hands, you let yourself cry. It feels wrong though, to cry. If Dave doesn’t want to be with you, that’s fine. You’re just a clingy piece of shit anyway.

You should probably lock your door, but honestly, who would care enough to come check on you? It’d be for the best if you died when the meteor crashed.

Of course, it was then that your door crashed open, and a very distressed Dave ran in.

“Karkat!” He said as he ran over to you, and sat down in front of you. “Shhh, it’s okay, I’m here.”

He runs one hand gently across your face, and you lunge into his arms, still crying. God, look how pathetic you are.

Dave wraps his arms around you, and presses a kiss to your forehead. You don’t want to lose this. Fuck, you really don’t want to lose this.

~

The two of you stay like that for a while. It’s only when your breathing begins to even out that Dave speaks up.

“Is it about the new session?” He asks with a soft voice.

“Sort of,” You reply.

Dave presses a kiss to your forehead. “What do you mean?”

“I, um,” You start, before reconsidering your answer, “it’s nothing.”

“Bullshit,” He almost sounds angry, “If it’s got you crying it’s not nothing.”

“I,” You try again, “I’m going to die.”

“What? No! Fuck no you’re not dying, I’m not letting you!” Dave’s voice is hurt and angry and he’s holding you tight. “Why would say that?” Is said quieter.

“In the new session, I’m going to be killed, I know it! I’m not important,” Oh fuck you’re crying again, “I barely managed to keep any trolls alive, and I never even managed to godtier!”

“Karkat-”

“I’m weak and pathetic, and you deserve so much better than me!”

“Karkat…”

“You’re always so amazing, I don’t want to lose you! But I’m just a greedy piece of shit!”

“Karkat!”

You stop talking.

Dave is looking you in the eyes, and you hadn’t noticed he’d taken off his shades until now. His beautiful red eyes look at you with a concerned, caring, and loving gaze.

“I love you,” He says, “and I can’t fucking imagine a world without you. If you die, you can bet your ass I’m gonna go back and save you.”

“But you hate using those powers,” You protest meekly. You just don’t want him to hurt himself.

“Dealing with the bullshit time powers cause is way fucking easier than even imagining what life would be like without you.”

“Well you better save yourself too, you heroic fuck,” You reply, your voice a little lighter. It’s really fucking nice to hear that he cares about you that much.

“Yep, that’s me, the heroic fuck. The most heroic of fucks, the fuckyiest heroic person,” Dave’s voice is strained.

“What’s wrong?” You ask.

“It’s nothing much, don’t really want to talk about it,” He says, voice reassuring.

“Hm,” You reply, “Okay.”

He smiles at you, and you smile back. You then lean in and kiss him. He immediately kisses back.

~~~~~

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and you really like kissing Karkat, which is a good thing considering that that is what you are currently doing. You two have kissed quite a lot since you got together, and you’ve certainly both gotten better at kissing.

When you pull away from the kiss, you kiss him quickly on the cheek and mentally prepare yourself to ask him a huge question. You’ve been meaning to ask it for a while, but chickened out every time.

“Karkat?” You ask.

“Yeah?” He replies, as he rests his head on your shoulder.

“So, in the new universe,” You start cautiously, “there is gonna be like, a shit ton of houses. Houses for everyone, even Susan and her 70 kids. She’ll be hosting family friendly parties every other day for her 6 bajillion neighbours, it’ll be the shit-”

“Get to the point.”

“Uhm, right, yeah,” You take a deep breath, “I was wondering if… if you wanted to live with me. Share a house and shit.”

He doesn’t answer immediately.

“Yeah,” He finally says, and you can hear the joy in his voice, “Fuck yes, I want to live with you.”

You smile, and hug him tighter.

Karkat moves his head to look at you in the eyes, and you’re both smiling like idiots. There are tears beginning to form in both of your eyes, but that’s ok, you’re both just so happy.

You kiss Karkat, trying to show him how happy you are to have him, how much you love him. You think he’s trying to do the same. He runs his tongue against your lips, and you open your mouth, letting him explore it. Eventually, he lets you explore his.

When you pull away, your still both smiling.

“Love you,” You say.

“Love you too, you dork,” He replies.

Later, you both know there will be more tears. You’re both terrified of dying, and you’re both terrified of fighting, you more so than Karkat on that second one. You’re terrified of meeting your teen bro. Karkat’s terrified of seeing John and Jade again, and you probably are too. Really, everything is terrifying.

But you’ve got each other, and you’re sure you’ll both be ok.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a journey this has been!
> 
> Next book, “Gone And Back Again” will be set on Earth C, with a bunch of my headcanons. Of course, it will have a happy ending, regardless of the tags.
> 
> I have some deep shit planned.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed reading this! Drop a comment if you did.   
> :D


End file.
